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Much of Ice Spice’s success and rise to stardom can be attributed to her talented producer RiotUSA. Riot was born in the Bronx, New York, and spent a lot of his time there. As the son of Hot 97’s DJ Enuff, he grew up surrounded by the radio, beats and the wide soundscape of New York.

Like his father, his mother worked in the music industry and introduced Riot to other genres like alternative rock. However, the catalyst was his introduction to drumming at ten years old. These drumming lessons went on to become the core of his production style. At the same time, Riot started experimenting with sounds, starting off by putting together loops on GarageBand. As an only child, he had a lot of free time and exhausted his boredom on any laptops he could get his hands on.

Later, he moved on to FL Studio, developing his looping and beat selection techniques. His feelings of being a solo, somewhat isolated artist started to change as he slowly started to gravitate towards his local music community. He went on to attend Purchase State University Art School in New York, and spent much of his time there utilising the studio spaces and surrounding himself with like-minded people in the music scene.

With an aim to make connections, he eventually crossed paths with Ice Spice, who was then a first-year communications major. Before dropping out, the two of them built a strong friendship based on their shared interest in rap.

At the time, drill music captivated New York, with Pop Smoke being at the top shortly before his tragic passing in 2020. Pop Smoke and his peers inspired Riot in the music community, among whom was A Lau and his production work for emerging drill rapper Bizzy Banks.

Shortly after collaborating with him in the studio, Riot and A Lau built a genuine connection and friendship. These connections formed the backbone of Riot’s music community, inspiring him to sharpen his craft in endless studio sessions, which led him to encourage Ice Spice to start rapping.

While drill music was heavily scrutinised for its controversial and violent lyrics, Spice brought a different sensibility, writing about her feelings, relationships and pushing for more female drill rappers to take the centre stage. The simplicity of Spice’s lyrics aligned with Riot’s production style, with clarity at the core of his craft and a hard kick and 808s as the heartbeat of the songs.

The producer tends to space out the sharp hi-hats and pairs them with a melody or sample, making sure that the drums carry the track. As such, his production style is bonded together by drums, which circle back to his childhood drumming lessons.

Songs like ‘Munch (Feelin’ U),’ ‘Deli’, and ‘Princess Diana’ (featuring Nicki Minaj) are some of his strongest and most popular works from the pair. The simplicity and clear sense of purpose and direction are a testament to Riot and Spice’s growth together, encouraging each other to pursue their respective careers and grow simultaneously.