Kunle Adeleye
Nigerian artist Panshak Henry Zamani, better known as Ice Prince, claims that his 2011 single ‘Oleku’ featuring Brymo was the first to be labelled as “Afrobeats.”
When he and his colleagues were sending ‘Oleku’ to worldwide radio stations, he and his team decided to add a “s” to Afrobeat, which was developed by Fela Kuti, to give their new sound an identity.
The rapper added that Ghanaian-British disc jockey, DJ Abrante, is usually credited with coining Afrobeats because he was the one who playlisted ‘Oleku,’ emphasising that the DJ used the tag Afrobeats on his and his team’s command.
Ice Prince stated in a recent interview with Echoo Room, “‘Oleku’ was one of the first songs to be playlisted on BBC Radio.” One of the earliest Afrobeats songs to be played on the radio. And they [foreign DJs] didn’t know what to call our music at the time, and they couldn’t call it Afrobeat. So we [my staff and I] told them to add an’s’ to make it Afrobeats.
“If you look back in time, ‘Oleku’ was the first Afrobeats record.” Because they had to label it on a radio station, we added the’s.’ If not, can you please tell me who came up with the’s’ at the end? Many people said it was done by DJ Abrante, but guess what? Abrante was the one that playlisted the song ‘Oleku.’ That’s my own claim o!”
"Oleku is actually the first Afrobeatsssss"
– IcePrince Zamani
📹 The LinkUp pic.twitter.com/4z9ULmbE0f
— 🐬 @𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗷𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗯𝗼𝘆 (@OneJoblessBoy) December 28, 2023
Kanyidaily recalls that MI Abaga declared Ice Prince as one Of Nigeria top 3 greatest Rappers of all time.
