Ice MC (born Ian Colin Campbell, 22 March 1965) is a British

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

who started his professional music career in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, when he got a record deal signing to

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

and

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

Savage and released his debut single " Easy" in 1989. He's best known for the

Eurodance Eurodance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of Hip-hop, rap, techno and Eurodisco. This genre of music is heavily influenced by the use ...

1990s hit singles " Take Away the Colour", " Think About the Way" and " It's a Rainy Day". Ice MC singles are most notable for being the first Eurodance songs to blend raggamuffin

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

style with female singing

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

es. Zanetti's music team produced Ice MC hits while also producing songs for other major Italian artists of the same decade, like Double You, Alexia, and Corona.

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, which originated in both London and Chicago in the mid-to-late 1980s. A British collaboration between the electronic group Beatm ...

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", 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'', was released in 1994 and featured Alexia on vocals. Three of his most successful songs, " Think about the Way", " 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 t ...

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 (or simply ragga) is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music with heavy use of sampling. Wayne Smith's " Under Mi Sleng Teng", produced by King Jammy in 1985 on a ...

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, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, 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, poem, or photograph ca ...

es of previous

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

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 producer Enrico Zabler) was released. The hit from the album was " Give Me the Light", 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. In February 2024, he was selected alongside DJ Jad, Wlady and Corona to compete in the final of '' Una voce per San Marino 2024'', the Sammarinese national selection for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Tattoo (Loreen song), Tattoo" by Loreen. Organised by the European Br ...

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

References

External links

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