Ice Prince has been pushing hard for the 2016 release
date for his highly anticipated “Jos To The World”
album for quite a while now. Considering how lukewarm
2015 has been for him, dropping the mixed-review
“Trash Can EP”, before going out of his way to record
‘Boss’ and teased us with trap for ‘ Feelings’ and then
inched closer to the dance floor with ‘ Boss’ . All of
these, seemed scatter-gun at the time, but it has
helped to shape what fans should expect from Ice
Prince’s third album.
Getting Korede Bello on ‘ Chike’ was supposed to be a
walk-in into the radio stations, through to our phones’
playlist, and into the chambers of our guarded hearts.
The stage was beautifully set. The rapper had
announced, and hyped his scheduled single release with
all the swag that he’s become very recognized for. The
song was tagged “The biggest song of his career”, the
promotion leading to the single was on point, as ‘ Chike’
geared up for a release.
But that great music release, brought great negative
release from the public, with Twitter being the worst
conveyor of disgust. Ice Prince was first attacked on all
fronts for the ‘mediocrity’ of the song. The rapper once
again abandoned his rap roots as he has done for quite
a while, and settled for the sounds of the moment, with
Korede Bello playing willing sidekick to the entire affair.
Nigerians were unanimous in their disgust, as Ice
Prince felt the heat of the masses.
But as that wave died down, another came up. Many
had listened repeatedly, and could not contain their
discovery that ‘ Chike’ sounded too similar to Olamide’s
‘Abule sowo’ . The floodgates flowed one more time,
and Ice Prince was forced to defend his work on Twitter
giving credits to various singles for their ‘Inspiration’.
Judgement was passed deservedly on ‘ Chike’ on two
fronts; The first was for its mediocrity, and the second
had him being called a cheat.
‘ Chike’ was planned to be the leading song that would
spearhead the push for “Jos To The World”, but the
reception it received shot it dead on arrival. Would the
quality of the song, which has been stamped as ‘not
good enough’ symbolize the entire album?
Ice Prince has never had a solid album to his name,
failing twice at his attempts to make an LP that will be
remembered long after he is gone. Wizkid has that.
D’banj has that. Wande Coal has that. Ice Prince? He
does not have that. But he does have ‘ Oleku’ and
‘ Aboki’ .
But time has told us that leaning on singles to get a
clear depiction of an album is like trying to pinpoint the
North Star in the thick of the forest, even though, “Jos
To The World” is looking pretty lost without a compass.
Ice Prince has the quality to dig deep and bring forth
pure musical gems, which would hold up strong against
time. But time and again, he has fallen short, showing
flashes of brilliance, but never enough to eventually win
over the most hardened of his critics.
Starting off as a rapper, who would have ever seen the
moment where his vocal ability singing wise trumped
his actual ability to rap? Earlier on in his career, singing
was something learned on the fly. It was never a
standard feature to his creative toolset. Ice Prince
probably has stopped being seen as a seeded lyricist
following the last two years. But who cares, he dropped
some of the biggest pop songs, met Jay Z, and started
off his record label. Though he’s done well for himself,
his status within rap hasn’t been the same. He
understands that by now as well. This means his new
album could go any direction at this point. Nobody
knows what he has planned for “Jos To The World”.
Until it drops. Let’s hope that happens sooner, rather
than later.
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