‘Jos To The World’ might just have more rap than any Ice Prince Project

To Hip-hop heads and general rap enthusiasts, Ice Prince is both a conundrum and a mild pariah.

He astounds and confuses many with his insistence to ignore rap music, or fail to include it in his most high profile singles. His reason, no matter how hard he explains it, still kicks many of these fans in the gut; singing is easier than rapping, and Ice Prince (like many pop artistes) loves to reign and kickback in his comfort zone.

The result of these is a growing set of dissatisfied fans, who have called him out at every turn, and when they have failed to see a response, switched off on him and branded him a ‘wack’ artiste. They made him a pariah in close circles, with any mention of his name generating a stream of disgust and negative expressions of frustration from the conversationalists.

Sometimes, when Ice Prince does come through with a rap track, the voices never quiet down, nor switch to the positives. He can do no good.

But all of that is slowly going away, and it is surprising why it is. Ice Prince is working on his third studio album, “Jos To The World”, and as the release dates draw closer, the rapper is putting out promotional materials to generate nationwide interest, and prep fans for the arrival.

The hashtags and photos have been on a constant stream, but that’s not all. Ice Prince is releasing visual previews of the project, and two have been released. It is the content of these short videos that is shifting focus and opinions back to the positive.

The first video is a snippet of ‘Teardrops’, had the rapper going through all of his emotions, poetically exposing his vulnerabilities, and touching base with his past, the struggles of his mother, and love tales that he was told. He is conflicted and creative; a combination of attributes that could birth material worthy of genius. The visual too, shot in Black and White, and features poignant images of the rapper, a cameo of Chopstix and a cute dog, that just seems to somehow embody the mood of the visual. There are shots of trees, faggots, old cars, the skies and puddles and road signs.

Video 2 is untitled, but has nostalgia embedded in the appearance of a boombox, archaic cassettes, and a dancer whose t-shirt bore the inscription – 1984 – two years before Ice Prince was born. This video maintained the technical characteristics of the first, but the subject matter centers on the days before his fame; when the hustle had not connected to big pay days, and he was just a young kid from Jos, trying to create a path to fame and achievement.

Ice Prince is rapping for real now. His groove is back, his subject matter is connecting, immersive and relatable. Word on the streets say this is a rap album, where Zamani returned to his early days of rap, and poured out his soul. If these whispers and titbits tell the full story of “Jos To The World”, then we might just have a bonafide rap project on our hand.

Soon people, soon.