From The Magazine: “Ice-prince, what were you thinking?!”

by Richard Odilu

 

In August 2011, rapper Ice Prince asked for essays on Twitter titled ‘Everyone loves Ice Prince’. He didn’t get a lot of love

 They thought I was a proud person, and I think it’s my fault

Do you think your career would have turned out differently if you were doing a different genre of music?

I can’t tell. Yes and no, I guess. If I were a singer doing gospel or makossa, perhaps I would be much bigger. Perhaps; Nobody can tell for sure.

But you’re famous now

Well, I may have a household name but not a household face yet and I am still working at that. Some people see me and call me MI, some others refer to me as Jesse Jagz, and someone has called me Saucekid. With more videos and airplay, I think my face will be established with my name.

Tell us about your song ‘Superstar’

I was talking about me, when I moved from Jos to Lagos and didn’t know I was going to blow, and did a single ‘Oleku’ and boom! It put me out there, and I am loving it, and I am feeling like a superstar.

Would you envy Ice Prince if you were not him – if you were just a fan?

No! I won’t. I would rather appreciate him and what he’s doing. As his fan I can see being Ice Prince is not easy.

Really?

Yes, he’s one of the youngest rappers in the industry; one of the youngest musicians together with Wizkid and Mocheddah, and he’s doing pretty well. We are very young and new in the game and we have attained a level of success that some of our senior colleagues did not get. Big respect to my senior colleagues, but we came on a different level. See Wizkid, he’s been nominated for EMA (European MTV Award), and MOBO, and I was nominated for Channel O, and I recently received an award in New York on Sunday. I won’t envy Ice Prince but will appreciate and encourage him so that he keeps doing what he’s good at.

Any incidents?

Hmm, I lost my mum very recently, May 5th and it will always be on my mind

My condolences

Thank you.

So which social networking site do you love the most?

Twitter and that’s the one for now, and it might change. Two, three years ago it was Facebook and now it’s Twitter. I would have loved YouTube better if one could chat there.

I noticed your excitement on twitter recently when you asked your followers to write an article on the topic ‘Everybody Loves Ice Prince’

(Laughs) That was when I was about to release my album titled Everybody Loves Ice Prince and I just wanted to share my blessings with those who have shown me love and have shown appreciation for what I do. My plan was to give out different gifts for different weeks. Like give out a blackberry phone the first week, an iPad the following week, and a laptop the next, and so on. So I thought of doing that by organising an essay competition using my album title as the topic, maybe a thirty word essay, just say what you like about me, and get to pick the winner that I feel love me the most, and maybe the second leg of the competition ask my fans to predict two songs from my album, but I had a fall out with people on the competition, I guess because of the title.

People misunderstood?

Yes, people misunderstood me and thought maybe I was being cocky, they thought I was a proud person, and I think it’s my fault because I didn’t communicate very well the idea to them. However, I got submissions from people, well over four hundred people sent in their essays and we did a random pick of the winner. Because many people weren’t happy with the idea we never publicised the outcome of the competition. The communication was a mistake on my part, my Record Label’s CEO, Audu Makori, even called to tell me he didn’t think I was communicating the idea properly and that I should re-organize it.

Do you regret that action?

Not at all, I wasn’t trying to offend anyone, neither was I trying to be cocky, I was not trying to be proud in anyway. I was only trying to be a nice guy and share my blessings with people. The stuff I wanted to give out were things some people wanted like blackberry phones, everyone wants a blackberry phone, I was only trying to be nice.

Is there something else that you wished you had and it will make stardom easier for you?

Nothing I can think of because I have a strong team backing me, some of them are in Lagos and others are in Abuja and they are working tirelessly to push my brand, Jesse Jagz, Brymo and the Chocolate City’s brand out there. I don’t think I am in lack. My parents once taught me that ‘in all situations give thanks to God,’ I know so many young people who would wish to trade places with me, and I am here so I give God the glory, I am grateful to him. Y!

 

 

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