Ice Prince Coined Afrobeats

According to Nigerian musician Panshak Henry Zamani, better known by his stage name Ice Prince, his 2011 single “Oleku,” which features Brymo, is the first to be labeled as “Afrobeats.”

He claimed that while he and his group were sending “Oleku” to foreign radio stations, they made the decision to append a “s” to the word “afrobeat,” which was coined by Fela Kuti, in order to give their new sound a distinct identity.

The rapper clarified that DJ Abrante, a Ghanaian-British disc jockey, is commonly credited with creating the genre because he was the one who playlisted “Oleku,” emphasizing that the DJ used the term “Afrobeats” at his and his team’s request

Speaking in a recent interview with Echoo Room, Ice Prince said: “‘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!”