Ice MC (born Ian Campbell, 22 March 1965) is a British rapper who started his professional music career in Italy when he got signed to

Robyx Roberto Zanetti (born 28 November 1956) is an Italian singer and music producer from Massa, Tuscany. As a singer, he is known under the stage name Savage and as a music producer he uses the alias Robyx. In 1989, he recorded " I Just Died in Yo ...

and made his debut with the single " Easy". He's best known for the

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

hit singles " Take Away the Colour", "

Think About the Way "Think About the Way" is a song by British-based rapper Ian Campbell (artist), Ice MC, released in March 1994 as the second single from his third album, ''Ice'n'Green'' (1994), on which it appears in four versions, and his tenth single overall. I ...

" "and " It's a Rainy Day". The Ice MC hits are most notable for being the first songs in the

genre to blend raggamuffin style rap with female singing choruses. Italian producer and singer Roberto Zanetti (a.k.a. Robyx) and his music team produced the Ice MC hits while simultaneously producing hits for other major '90s artists like

Double You Double You are an Italian Eurodance group founded in 1985 by vocalist William Naraine, keyboardist and producer Franco Amato and DJ Andrea de Antoni. By 1992, they had sold more than three million records. " Please Don't Go", a dance version of KC ...

, Alexia, and

Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...

Career

The first albums

In 1989 in Italy, Ice MC met singer and artist Roberto Zanetti (also as composer known as Savage and producer as Robyx). Their first single called " Easy", made in a

hip-house Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid to late 1980s. British group the Beatmast ...

style, came out in 1989. It became successful all over Europe, reaching the top 5 in Italy and the top 3 in Germany. The two next singles, "Cinema" and "

Scream Scream may refer to: *Screaming, a loud vocalization Amusement rides * Scream (Heide Park), a gyro drop tower in Soltau, Germany * Scream! (ride), a tower ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags New England * Scream! (roller coaster), at ...

", and the subsequent debut album, ''Cinema'' (released later in 1990), were also successful. In 1992 his second LP, ''My World'', came out but failed to achieve the success of its predecessor.

The most successful hits

His third album, ''

Ice'n'Green ''Ice'n'Green'' is a 1994 album by British-Italian based Eurodance artist Ian Campbell (rapper), ICE MC. It was his third album and produced three successful singles. It includes two versions for each of two of his greatest hits, "It's a Rainy D ...

'', was released in 1994 and featured Alexia on vocals. Three of his most successful songs, "

Think about the Way "Think About the Way" is a song by British-based rapper Ian Campbell (artist), Ice MC, released in March 1994 as the second single from his third album, ''Ice'n'Green'' (1994), on which it appears in four versions, and his tenth single overall. I ...

", " It's a Rainy Day" and " Take Away the Colour", made the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...

all over the world. For the third album Ice MC adopted an all new dreadlocks look and utilised Jamaican style rap, known as

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Smi ...

muffin. The album was also released in the US, where the two biggest singles saw substantial club play and moderate dance music radio airplay. In 1995, ''Ice'n'Green – The Remix Album'' was released. This contained various

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es of previous hit singles.

Collaboration with Masterboy

In 1996, Ice MC decided to leave Zanetti and Alexia due to some disagreements. Shortly after that a new album, ''Dreadatour'', (produced by

Masterboy Masterboy is a German Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, ...

producer Enrico Zabler) was released. The hit from the album was "

Give Me the Light "Give Me the Light" is a 1996 song recorded by British, Italy based Eurodance artist Ice MC, featuring vocals by Italian singer Valentina Ducros. Produced by German Eurodance project Masterboy, it was released as the first single from Ice MC's f ...

", the second Single-Release from "Dreadatour" was "Music For Money" also produced by Enrico Zabler from Masterboy also the Album-Tracks "Never Stop Believing" and "It's Up To You". The Album "Dreadatour" itself was not a commercial success.

Since 2002

Ice MC - 2018328210002 2018-11-24 Sunshine Live - Die 90er Live on Stage - Sven - 1D X MK II - 0252 - AK8I4650

At the end of 2002, he decided to return to Italy and to contact Roberto Zanetti again. Together they started writing some new material and, at the beginning of 2004, they began recording a new album, ''Cold Skool''. In 2012 a new single "Out Tonight" featuring Giulia Gal was released and in 2013 the new remixes by Enfortro & Dirty Disciples were released. In 2017, the single featuring Nico Heinz and Max Kuhn including an official video were released.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Other singles: *1997: "Bebop the Night" (original soundtrack "Wilde Zeiten") *1997: "Energy" (original soundtrack "Wilde Zeiten") *1998: "Busy Body" (unreleased single produced by Gary Jones, one of the co-producers of

E-Rotic E-Rotic are a Eurodance duo act formed in 1994 by German record producer David Brandes. The act is best known in Europe for the hits " Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex" and "Fred Come to Bed". E-Rotic originally consisted of German born singer L ...

) *2013: "Out Tonight (Enfortro vs. Dirty Principle Edit)" *2017: "Do the Dip" (feat. Nico Heinz & Max Kuhn)

References

External links

Booking website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice MC 1965 births English people of Jamaican descent Black British male rappers English male rappers Club DJs Eurodance musicians Hip house musicians People from Nottingham Living people