How I Coined Afrobeats – Ice Prince 

How I Coined Afrobeats – Ice Prince 

According a Nigerian rapper, Panshak Henry Zamani, aka Ice Prince, his 2011 song ‘Oleku’ with Brymo was the first song to be categorized as ‘Afrobeats.’

Ice Prince claims that the song ‘Oleku’ was the first to be classified as ‘Afrobeats’ by adding an ‘s’ to the original term, ‘Afrobeat.’

The rapper says that his team decided to use this new term when sending the song to international radio stations.

DJ Abrante, a Ghanaian-British DJ, is widely credited with coining the term ‘Afrobeats,’ but Ice Prince says that this was done at his team’s direction.

Speaking in a recent interview with Echoo Room, Ice Prince stated that: “‘Oleku’ was one of the first songs to be playlisted 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’ it to make it Afrobeats.

“Check the history, ‘Oleku’ was the first Afrobeats record. Because they have to label it on a radio station, that was why we put the ‘s.’ If not tell me who came up with the ‘s’ at the end? A lot of people said it is credited to DJ Abrante, but guess what? Abrante was the one that playlisted the song ‘Oleku.’ That’s my own claim o!”