Zedd Welcomed Ice Spice as Special Guest at Ultra

As if Ultra Music Festival couldn’t go more viral…Zedd brought out viral rapper Ice Spice to perform ‘No Clarity’ (which samples his track ‘Clarity’) to up the ante.

With Miami Music Week 2023 just wrapping up, we’re still reliving some of our favorite parts of the annual electronic dance music lover’s dream. And there’s no doubt that Ultra Music Festival is one of the most significant events of the week: With three days of back-to-back EDM featuring some of the biggest names in the game, it’s quite the way to wrap up the celebration.

Ultra took place from March 24-26 at Bayfront Park in Miami, FL. This year’s lineup featured a stunning array of EDM legends, including David Guetta, Hardwell, Kx5, Martin Garrix, Rezz, Tiësto, and Zedd, the latter of whom brought out a surprise guest during his set on Friday. 

While remixing his 2012 hit track ‘Clarity’ featuring Foxes, Russian-German DJ powerhouse Zedd welcomed Bronx-born rapper Ice Spice to the stage to sing her 2021 song ‘No Clarity,’ which samples Zedd’s original track. 

Immediately the feature blew up on Twitter, with @TeamBandL posting a video captioned, “wow zedd rly just brought out ice spice at ultra.” The special guest appearance had mixed reviews in the Twittersphere: Some users were all for it, like @thankgodbabe who replied, “this is the moment. iconic. legendary. unforgettable. Y’all the best event at MMW no competition.”

Others were not as impressed; as @peterrmasteron replied, “I hate being a hater but this ruined clarity lol.” And some were just downright confused: @reviews_raving tweeted a video of the collab, captioning it, “Zedd’s special guest at Ultra was…Ice Spice??? We are as confused as you are.” 

Isis Naija Gaston, better known by her stage name Ice Spice, has quickly soared in popularity in the last couple of years, thanks in part to the fact that many of her songs have gone viral on TikTok. Although her music predominantly resides in the hip-hop genre, Ice Spice told NME that she enjoyed EDM music as a middle schooler in the 2010s, hence her experimentation with sampling Zedd’s ‘Clarity.’

And how has the rave community welcomed Ice Spice? The answer is, to differing degrees. @SellTheTeamRoss commented on Twitter, “Keep her away from our scene lol.” However, other users disagreed with this notion: @KimatiMusic tweeted, “i’m so confused why is everyone hating on zedd for bringing ice spice to rap a song over his set?? i think the two genres need to collide more often. electronic music takes sooo much influence from Rap.”

Regardless of differences in opinion, there’s no doubt that Ice Spice’s guest appearance at Ultra was iconic.