“Oleku Was the 1st Afrobeats Record”: Ice Prince Shares His Side of the Story on Nigerian Music

• Ice Prince asserted that his 2011 single 'Oleku' featuring Brymo, was the pioneering track to be classified as Afrobeats
• In a recent interview, Ice Prince confidently stated that he introduced the term Afrobeats, which became widely recognised due to his breakout song
• The lyric god further pointed out ways he and his team had put heads together to find the correct term for the genre using Fela's Afrobeat

Nigerian rapper Panshak Henry Zamani, better known by his stage name Ice Prince, asserted that his 2011 hit song 'Oleku' featuring Brymo was the first song to be categorised as Afrobeats.

This was made known in a recent interview with Echoo Room recently, where he also asserted that he was the one who came up with the term Afrobeats.

He asserted that in order to distinguish their new sound from Fela Kuti's "Afrobeat," they decided to add a "s" to the word when they were sending "Oleku" to international radio stations.

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The rapper explained that the Ghanaian-British DJ Abrante was usually said to have created the genre of Afrobeats because he playlisted "Oleku," but that it him and his crew requested that Abrante use the word Afrobeats when they were working together.

His words, in part:

"Oleku' was one of the first songs to be played on BBC Radio. One of the first Afrobeats songs to be playlisted. And at that time, they [foreign DJs] didn't know what to call our music, and they couldn't call it Afrobeat. So, we [I and my team] told them to put an' s' to make it Afrobeats."

See his video below

Nigerians react to Ice Prince's statement

Legit.ng compiled the reactions below:

@BalogunREADONE:

"Fact from Iceprince... oleku was everywhere back then."

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@LinchpinMusic_:

"Memories from when that song carried us in highschool that year! ."

@ThaGuru_:

"Make your own claim man, no gree for anybody."

@Tobigrayy:

"One of those new school afrobeatssss yeah!! According to him. At the time of oleku, that’s when we started focusing on that tune more really but at that time we had lots of songs, it did seem like a sporadic outpour."

@Asiwaju_Rahman:

He is not sure of what he is saying and he not too confident about it and so his claim

Ice Prince gifts fan diamond wristwatch

Nigerian singer Panshak Henry Zamani, best known as Ice Prince Zamani, delighted one of his fans at his concert.

The rapper was said to have reportedly given the young man his diamond wristwatch worth millions of naira.

A viral video captured a highly enthusiastic male fan showcasing the timepiece while laughing wildly in front of the camera.

Source: Legit.ng