Fire of Zamani

Ice Prince first announced the album's title and release timeframe during an interview with Toolz on NdaniTV's The Juice. He said, "I'm working on an album for 2013. I can't announce the date yet but later on in the year, there will be an album called the Fire of Zamani. One of the stories I'm trying to tell is that criticism brings out the beast and fire in you. Often being criticized from my first album, I'm working on the next album like I've never worked on anything in my life before".[4] Furthermore, he said he heard the phrase Fire of Zamani while listening to 2face's The Unstoppable album. Fire of Zamani was initially scheduled for release on September 9, 2013, in order to commemorate the victims of a 2001 Jos crisis.[5][6] On October 17, 2013, Ice Prince revealed the album's artwork as a collage consisting of small posters.[7] Four days later, he released its track listing.[8] Fire of Zamani is available on the Spinlet platform, a digital media library application similar to iTunes.[9][10]

Chocolate City held an album launch concert on November 23, 2013, at the Expo Hall of the Eko Hotels and Suites.[11] The concert featured performances from Ice Prince, Chip, M.I Abaga, Don Jazzy, Olamide, Burna Boy, Sunny Neji, Yung L, Ruby, Morell, Jeremiah Gyang, DJ Caise and DJ Edu.[12] In December 2013, Ice Prince held an album listening session at the Hilton Sandton in Johannesburg. He gave a detailed account of each song on the album and signed autograph copies of the album for each guest. The event was hosted by South African rapper Da L.E.S.[13]

The album's lead single "Aboki" (Hausa: Friend) was released on August 28, 2012. The song was produced by Chopstix and celebrates some of the most successful individuals from Northern Nigeria.[14] The music video for "Aboki" was directed by Phil Lee in Los Angeles.[15]

The album's second single "More" was also released on August 28. Its music video was shot and directed in London by Moe Musa. British-Nigerian singer Lola Rae played Ice Prince's love interest in the video.[16][17] "Gimme Dat" was released as the album's third single on April 23, 2013. The song was also produced by Chopstix and features vocals by Yung L, Burna Boy and Olamide.[18] An alternative version of the song, featuring Wande Coal, surfaced on the internet after the release of the official version.[19] The French Montana and Shaydee-assisted track "I Swear" was released as the album's fourth single on September 9, 2013.[20] The music video for the song was shot and directed in the U.S by J.R Saint.[21]

On February 20, 2014, Ice Prince premiered the Sesan-directed music video for "Jambo".[22] On May 28, 2014, he released the music video for "Whiskey"; it was directed by Aje Filmworks and features cameo appearances from Sunny Nneji and DJ Caise.[23] In an interview with MTV UK in April 2014, Ice Prince said he would release the music video for "Mercy", a song that features a verse from British rapper Chip.[24] On August 6, 2014, Ice Prince released a video for the AKA-assisted remix of "N Word".

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Nigerian Entertainment Today	[25]
9jaNinja	4.8/10[26]

Fire of Zamani received mixed reviews from music critics. Reviewing for YNaija, Wilfred Okiche called the album "easily accessible and ridiculously catchy" and said it "shines as bright as Ice wants it to".[27] In a negative review, Ayomide Tayo of Nigerian Entertainment Today gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5, saying the "lack of a solid theme running through the LP makes the whole project sound all over the place."[25] Toye Trill of 9jaNinja granted the album 4.8 stars out of 10, adding "there were so much reggae infusion into Ice's verses, that lyrically only few songs didn't have evidence of Ice Prince's inner rasta man, for a supposed rap album."[26]

Notes

• "—" denotes a skit

The following people contributed to Fire of Zamani:

[1]