Ice MC is a black-skinned British artist, hip-hop star, whose hits "blew up" the dance floors of the 1990s around the world. It was he who was destined to return hip house and ragga to the top lists of the world charts, combining traditional Jamaican rhythms a la Bob Marley, and modern electronic sound. Today, the artist's compositions are considered the golden classics of Eurodance of the 1990s.
The childhood and youth of the singer
Ice MC was born on March 22, 1965 in the English city of Nottingham, which became famous for the fact that in the Middle Ages "the nice guy Robin Hood" lived in its vicinity. However, for Ian Campbell (the future rapper received such a name at birth), East Anglia was not his historical homeland.
The boy's parents were immigrants from the distant Caribbean island of Jamaica. They moved to the UK in the 1950s in search of a better life, settling in Highson Green.
This area of Nottingham was populated mainly by immigrants from Jamaica. This helped the yesterday's inhabitants of a small island to survive in a foreign country, as well as to preserve their cultural folk traditions. The main language of communication in Hyson Green, as in Jamaica, was Patois, and the inhabitants continued to love traditional Caribbean music and dance.
At the age of 8, Ian Campbell was enrolled in a local school. But, according to the rapper's memoirs, he never liked studying and was like a heavy duty. The only favorite subject of the boy was physical education. He grew up as a mobile, dexterous and very plastic guy.
When Jan was 16 years old, he decided to leave his unloved occupation, dropped out of school without receiving a certificate. Instead, he got a job as a carpenter's apprentice, but this quickly got tired of the guy.
Like many young people of the emigrant suburbs, he began to wander aimlessly through the streets, from time to time engaging in theft and hooliganism. It is not known how such a life would have ended for young Campbell, but breakdance saved him.
It was during these years that he first saw the performance of street break dancers, which literally bewitched the impressionable young man. Soon he joined one of the groups of street dancers, began to rehearse with them, and even went on tour in Europe.
The beginning of Ice MC's creative career
So the Jamaican youth ended up in Italy, and, parting with his group of dancers, he decided to settle in beautiful Florence. Here he made money by giving private break lessons. But after the rupture of the knee ligaments received during the performance, he was forced to leave this occupation for a long time.
In order not to die of hunger, the creative young man tried himself as a DJ at a local disco. Soon he became a local dance floor star, starting to write his own compositions. They were a mix of ragga and house. And in the texts there were words in English and Patois.
Some time later, recordings with the songs of the young artist fell into the hands of the Italian artist and producer Zanetti. He was better known by his stage name Savage. It is he who is considered the musical "godfather" of Ice MC. In a creative duet with Zanetti, Campbell had his first real hit. This is the composition Easy, which became a "breakthrough" in 1989. This hit entered the top 5 charts in various European countries. Also in Britain, France and Italy.
Ice MC collaboration with Zanetti
In the same years, the creative pseudonym of Ian Campbell appeared. Its first part (English "ice") is a nickname received by a guy at school thanks to the initials of his first and last name (Ian Campbell). And the prefix MC among representatives of reggae means "artist".
After initial success, the aspiring star recorded her first album, Cinema, in 1990. The work turned out to be so successful that the MC organized a world tour based on it, having visited the countries of Europe, Africa and Japan.
The following year, the second author's album My World was released. But, unfortunately, it was met by both music critics and the audience very cool. Zanetti and Ice MC thought about the commercial success of the new album. As a creative solution, Zanetti in 1994 invited the young Italian performer Alexia to collaborate.
The new album, where Alexia's female vocals sound with Campbell's voice, was called Ice'n'Green. This creation was a significant achievement for Ice MC throughout his previous and subsequent career. The album was performed in Eurodance style.
Both soloists and Ice MC, and Alexia radically changed their stage image. Ian grew dreadlocks and imitated the famous reggae culture guru Bob Marley. The joint album of Yan and Alexia broke all commercial sales records in France. He took the top of the charts in Italy, Germany and the UK.
Cooperation with Zabler
In 1995, on the wave of euphoria from the success of the album Ice'n'Green, Ice MC decided to release a collection of remixes of the main hits from this disc. However, the work was not successful and went almost unnoticed by music critics. This setback exacerbated Campbell and Zanetti's separation.
The root cause of the future quarrel was the disagreement regarding the copyright ownership of the main hits of the MC. As a result, the contract between the Jamaican performer and the Italian producer was terminated. Jan moved to Germany. Here he began working under the tutelage of the German producer Zabler, recording at the Polydor studio.
At the same time, the creative union Ice MC with the German team Masterboy appeared. One of the results of their collaboration was the track Give Me the Light. This single became a hit on the dance floors of Europe. Together with Zabler Ice MC recorded his fifth CD Dreadator. It included a number of bright tracks. But in general, the album could not repeat the success of Jan's past compositions.
Music experts attribute Campbell's decline in popularity to his "age-related changes". Lyrics became very politicized, sharp social topics were in the first place.
In his tracks, the MC touched upon the problems of drugs, the spread of AIDS, and unemployment. It was alien to the Eurodance trend in the mid-1990s. The new singles he wrote at the end of the decade were also not popular. Eurodance was no longer interesting.
Contemporaneity
In 2001, MC resumed his former collaboration with Zanetti, hoping to become popular. But new attempts at cooperation again ended in failure. After the release of Cold Skool in 2004, which was not popular with the music audience, Ice MC decided to take a break. This disc is the last in the singer's musical career.
Campbell returned to his second homeland - to England. Here he seriously took up painting, which came as a surprise to his friends and admirers. He currently makes a living selling his masterpieces online.
From time to time, Jan returns to music, releasing remixes of his most successful hits. In 2012, he recorded several tracks with DJ Sanny-J and J. Gall. And in 2017, he performed the single Do the Dip with Heinz and Kuhn. In 2019, Campbell took part in the world tour of 1990s pop artists.
Personal life
Ice MC keeps information about his personal life a secret. Not a single publication managed to find out about his past and present girls, about children, whether he was ever officially married.
The only thing that is known is that Jan has a nephew Jordan, who decided to follow the path of his illustrious uncle. In England, this aspiring hip-hoper is known under the creative pseudonym Littles. The only profile that Ice MC has on social networks is a Facebook page. On it, he actively shares his creative plans with his fans and publishes current photos.
