Ice Prince ft. Gyptian – Magician

We need diversity of sounds from our artists and the music brands they represent/sell, both on a local and international level. Accordingly, you all can only imagine how thrilled I am to see the new direction Chocolate City artist Ice Prince is going with the remix of his song ‘Magician’ ft. Reggae dance hall superstar Gyptian. Talks have been ongoing among industry insiders, for a minute. However, we now have the big reveal with actual proof of collaboration. Ice Prince unveiled, yesterday at the Industry Nite event series, his behind the scenes video clips of the ‘Magician’ remixed upcoming music video shot by Clarence Peters. I am happy for him and the Chocolate City gang. Let’s see how and if Clarence Peters pushes the creative envelope and the direction he takes Ice Prince with selling him to a much broader audience. There is a lot to talk about on collaborating with international music acts . . . For now . . . Finland’s Spinlet, a technology startup with Lagos and San Francisco offices, and new comer to digital distribution targeting Africa’s market, allegedly brokered the connection with Gyptian. As a newcomer proclaiming itself to be Africa’s #1 digital distributor with no track record, yet, of success, and a need to show true industry connections within and outside of Africa, Spinlet needs to put up some real numbers on the board. Gyptian is a potential showing of what they can do . . .but I am not sold, yet. I’ll save further discussions for when I take on Spinlet and IROKOing. Spinlet is digestable. Irokoing, Iroko on YouTube is simply nothing short of perplexing almost annoying and definitely weird on the part of the artists and labels signing agreements with Irokoing/ Iroko for Youtube marketing and blocking of content. Even with money offered by Irokoing/Iroko dealings on YouTube by Iroko, many artists should say, “no thank you” and keep it moving. The music industry is not the film industry, Iroko’s genesis and model, and trying to replicate the same business model used for distributors in the local markets with limited internet access is just like, “Huh?.” In any event, back to Ice Prince. I am happy and proud of the diversity of sound he is creating. I hope he continues to flex his music muscles and we see more solid work from him this year. P.S: Ice Prince, sir, don’t get too “flygerianwesternized” for Nigeria’s fashion industry because then you and I have a problem. Lol! I’m serious though. Cheers, Uduak