Ice Spice Finds Unlikely (And Slightly Vulgar) Career Inspiration From ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’

What’s your favorite moment in SpongeBob SquarePants history? Is it “I remember when they first invented chocolate” ? Or “Sweet Victory” ? Or maybe it’s the time Mr. Krabs told SpongeBob to “go the f*ck home.”

In a cover story for Rolling Stone , rapper Ice Spice talked about how SpongeBob SquarePants — both the unstoppable Nickelodeon series and the endlessly optimistic character — has inspired her work ethic.

“I think I learned a lot from that show,” she said. “He never wanted a day off, even when Mr. Krabs would tell him, ‘Go the f*ck home.’ He’d be like, ‘No, I need to work.’”

So that’s what SpongeBob characters are saying under the dolphin noise .

Later, Ice Spice discussed the response to the cover artwork for her upcoming album, Y2K! (here’s something to make you feel old: the first SpongeBob SquarePants episode aired seven months before the turn of the millennium).

“Throughout my entire career, I don’t think I’ve ever had a moment of strictly praise. I think, through it all, there was always a lot of hate,” she said. “And I kind of appreciate that, because I find that when people are only love, they’re not as real. I don’t dwell on how people are perceiving me, whether it’s negative or positive, because that’s really what you sign up for when you put yourself out there on a public platform. It’s for people to make their opinions about you.”

Y2K! comes out on July 26.