According to Ice Prince, a Nigerian rapper, his 2011 song ‘Oleku’ featuring Brymo is considered to be the first song categorized as “Afrobeats.”
Ice Prince and his team made the decision to add an “s” to Afrobeat, a term coined by Fela Kuti, in order to distinguish their new sound.
They used this term when promoting ‘Oleku’ to international radio stations.
Ice Prince also clarified that DJ Abrante, a Ghanaian-British DJ, is credited for popularizing the term Afrobeats because he included ‘Oleku’ in his playlist as directed by Ice Prince and his team.
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!”
