Panshak Zamani, known in the entertainment industry as Ice Prince, is one of the talents that the Chocolate City record label boasts of. The artiste, whose hit, Oleku, remains a favourite of music lovers’, tells Nonye Ben-Nwankwo about his music and life
Panshak Zamani was an ordinary boy next door until he came into the music industry with his hit single, Oleku. Almost instantly, Ice Prince, as he is popularly called, found fame.
Of course, his parents didn’t name him Ice Prince. He tells Saturday Punch that the name was given to him by his friends when he was still in secondary school.
“There is no story behind Ice Prince. My fans started calling me Ice Prince and the name stuck. In fact, it was when I was in school. They
started with Ice. Then they added P to it from my first name, Panshak. Later on, Prince came. There is really no serious story behind the name,” he says.
As the name stuck, so has Oleku become synonymous with Ice Prince. But even as the Oleku initiator, many believed the song wouldn’t have made any impact if not for his fellow label mate, Brymo, who spiced the chorus up.
But, Ice Price is not bothered by anybody’s thinking, saying he wrote the song before Brymo touched it up a little.
“If I had sang the chorus,” he says “it might not have been this big. I agree; Brymo blessed that song with incredible vocals. It is all good. For me, it is better to work with people than to work alone. You get better ideas when you work with other people. That is how we behave in Chocolate City. We always try to help one another. The chorus for No. 1 was written by me. But I won’t sit down and decide to take all the credit. I wrote a part of the chorus in Oleku and I called Brymo to help me finish it up. I don’t speak Yoruba. I just told him what I wanted and he put it together and we did it and the song is a success.”
Well, no matter who did what, Ice Prince is now a big fish in the music business. He is also warming up for his album launch coming up soon.
“We are going to have a blast in Lagos on October 9. It is a kind of album launch that we have never seen before. My brothers are going to blow peoples’ minds on that day,” he enthuses.
But Oleku has been on air for more than two years, how come he is just releasing his full album now?
Ice Prince says, “I am signed to a record label called Chocolate City. There is a schedule in the label. MI was scheduled to release first. Jesse Jags follows and then Ice Prince before Brymo. I was actually meant to come out in 2010. Oleku was released in 2009. However, earlier this year, I lost my mum. When that happened, everything in my life just stopped. I stopped recording. It was a big blow. That was actually what delayed the release of the album.”
His eyes actually grew misty as he talked about the death of his mother. Ice Prince recalls that his mother was actually his pillar.
“I was close to my mother,” he says. I used to talk to her everyday. I was in London when she died. I had spoken to her earlier before she was taken to the hospital. I entered the plane and just as I touched down, I got a text she was dead. I was devastated. She was my best friend. My dad is dead as well. He died in 1999. I am an orphan now. But thank God He put me here. He has a reason for everything he does.”
The rapper says his mother was supportive of his career.
“My dad didn’t see me doing music. I believe somewhere in my heart that my father wouldn’t have allowed me to do music. He would have wanted me to be a doctor. But my mum supported me all the way. She paid for my first studio session. I was making crap music then. She didn’t have an idea of what I was singing. But she knew this was what I wanted to do and she supported me,” he says.
And blessed with her support, Ice Prince continued making music and somehow, got signed on to one of the leading record labels, Chocolate City.
Some might think Ice Prince would still have been in obscurity if not for Chocolate City, which brought him to the fore. He didn’t deny it.
“I can’t say for sure if I would have gotten to this level or not if not for Chocolate City. However, I cannot take away the fact that Chocolate City signed me up. They gave me direction. Maybe I would not have been here. Maybe I would have been doing something different if not for Chocolate City,” he says.
And as he is in Chocolate City, Ice Prince says he doesn’t envisage any problem with the label, neither does he see himself pulling out of the crew to be on his own.
“I pray I never have to leave my record label. God forbid. I pray that if I come back as a musician in my next life, I will still want to join Chocolate City. Our relationship goes beyond business and paper signing. We are a family. Our bosses are there to tell us what to do and we listen to them as our elders. That is what keeps us going. I don’t see any of us detaching from Chocolate City. I think we are going to be together forever,” he says.
His fellow Choc boys (as they are called), are also on top of their game. This makes one to start wondering if there is no rivalry among them.
Ice Prince says that the bond among them is so strong that even music cannot break it.
“We don’t have a relationship, we have brotherhood. MI’s parents are the only parents I have now. Before I came to Lagos, I was living in their house in Abuja. I stayed in their Abuja home for two years. Even when my mum was alive, MI and Jesse saw her as their mum. We have a bond. We fight and we settle. We don’t take our arguments outside the house. We settle it like brothers that we are. We know the hierarchy in the house. We know MI as the elder brother, then Jesse and then me, before Brymo,” he says.
Even with the fame he has acquired, Ice Prince is still humble. “I don’t allow all the talk by fans to go to my head,” he says.
“I like everybody. I try to be me as much as possible. I always try to remember where I am coming from. I come from a religious background. My parents brought me up well so I try to be decent with the girls. I try to know my boundary. Thank God I have a girlfriend. I handle my fans properly,” he says.
Talking about his girlfriend, Ice Prince says it wasn’t his fame that got him the girl, whose name he refuses to mention.
“If I wasn’t here, I probably wouldn’t have met her. But I don’t believe that she is with me because I am a star. She is a star as well. I will not mention her name. She is an actress from Ghana and she is a big star as well. She is not with me because of my fame. She is with me because she loves me,” he says
Ice Prince says he is not in the league of artistes who knock ladies up without getting married to them.
“Impregnating a lady is not something any young man prays for. But it is not done in the music industry only. Boys in the street get girls pregnant every other day. It is just that ours is blown out of proportion. I hope I won’t get to that point. I pray my child will come at the right time. I yearn so much for a child. I am the only son and my parents are dead. If anything happens to me today, God forbid, my family name is erased. I hope to see what God does for me,” he says.
He may not be in the league of the artistes who impregnate ladies at will, but he is also in the league of artistes who decided to pursue music and leave education. He explains his reasons.
“I finished my primary and secondary school education and I got admission to study zoology at the University of Jos. But at that time, I had started pushing my music and I was already becoming big in Jos. I had to drop zoology and move to Abuja. From then, I couldn’t go back to school. I do have plans to go back to school. We all will do that. Maybe I will go to school in America in 2015. But for now, no,” he says.
Ice Prince says he doesn’t have any inferiority complex because he is yet to have a degree, neither is he in any way bothered about it.
“I don’t have a complex. I believe everybody’s calling is different. God put us in this world to fulfil different destinies. If everybody goes to school, who will be the musician? Who will entertain the people? Who will make the music that everybody will dance to and be happy? This is what God wants me to do. I don’t have any regrets at all. Besides, I am more outspoken than so many other people that went to school,” he says.
As much as he is not doing badly in the music industry, Ice Prince says he may likely not be a musician for the rest of his life.
“I don’t think I will do music for life. At some point, I might have to stop. I might be making and writing music. But I have to stop being a performing artiste. I can’t be performing with a walking stick. I am into business. My parents left some asset for me. I hope to manage it and make it bigger,” he says.
Source: PUNCH
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