Some music artists come to limelight and remain there for decades, serving generations with the gift of their art and remaining in their collective memory years later. However, some artists who were once the public delight and their songs were some sort of anthem for fans happen to vanish from our screens, playlists, and memories while they are still very much around. One of such artists is Ice Prince and it is fascinating how the once talented and rapper vanished while still making music.
Ice Prince (real name, Panshak Zamani) is a former Chocolate City rapper who grew up in Jos like his label mates, MI and Jesse Jagz. His debut hit, Oleku featuring Brymo, was loved and played all over the country. It was so successful it had more than 20 remixes from different artists, including some in Hausa and Igbo. His subsequent hits “Superstar”, “Aboki”, and “JuJu”, although not nearly as successful as Oleku, were a rave in clubs, bars and streets.
His first album, Everybody Loves Ice Prince(E.L.I.)(2011), featured various artists and the album was a huge success. His second album, Fire of Zamani(2013), also did well but the reception dropped from what his first album used to be. But he got a number of hits off it. “I Swear”, a track in which he featured American rapper, French Montana, blew up. So did “Gimme Dat” and “VIP”.
Also, upon the release of “VIP” at a time when indigenous rap was gaining massive traction around the country, many fans hoped that the then Choc Boi woul hop on the game to makeup the wazobia trio of indigenous rappers. Olamide rapped in Yoruba; Phyno rapped in Igbo; Ice Prince, a northerner, might as well start rapping in Hausa.
But that didn’t happen. His fans still wanted to receive more bars from him but it appeared to be that his career would only go downhill from there. Eventually, he left Chocolate City in 2016 and formed his own label called Super Cool Cats. That would mark his slow but increasing disappearance from the music scene.While Ice prince still makes music, he has lost a large part of his fan base and his songs haven’t since been mainstream ones.
Will he bounce back to once again become the artist we all enjoyed listening to? Time, they say, will tell.
