WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.740 You know, when we talk about finding your voice, 00:00:01.860 --> 00:00:05.459 we usually mean it metaphorically, right? Yeah, 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:07.740 like discovering a personal style or something. 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:10.060 Exactly, or just solidifying how you see the 00:00:10.060 --> 00:00:14.419 world. But what if finding your voice is actually 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:19.000 this? intensely literal physical process. Oh 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:20.820 that's an interesting way to look at it. Yeah 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:23.359 like what if it requires taking the rhythmic 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:26.559 traditions of one continent combining them with 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:29.679 the icy electronic vibes of another and just 00:00:30.410 --> 00:00:32.570 I don't know, blending them together in your 00:00:32.570 --> 00:00:34.390 throat. And hoping the rest of the world actually 00:00:34.390 --> 00:00:36.909 understands what you're doing. Right. Hoping 00:00:36.909 --> 00:00:38.869 they get the frequency you're broadcasting on. 00:00:38.990 --> 00:00:41.869 Yeah. Because that is not easy. No, it's an incredibly 00:00:41.869 --> 00:00:43.829 steep hill to climb. I mean, you're asking a 00:00:43.829 --> 00:00:46.390 domestic audience to just embrace this cultural 00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:49.729 hybrid that they might completely lack the geographical 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:52.310 context to digest right away. And yet, today 00:00:52.310 --> 00:00:54.149 we're looking at an artist who didn't just climb 00:00:54.149 --> 00:00:57.130 that hill. He basically paved a multi -lane highway 00:00:57.130 --> 00:00:59.740 right over it. He really did. Today we're doing 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:03.200 a deep dive into a really massive, highly detailed 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:06.780 Wikipedia article about German Krippi. Now, to 00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:09.200 the average person, the name German might not 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:12.120 ring a bell. Probably not, no. But if you track 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:15.260 European music charts, or honestly, if you've 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:17.040 just picked up a controller to play some virtual 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:19.359 soccer in the last few years, you have absolutely 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:22.489 heard his stage name, Icekide. Yeah, Ice Kid. 00:01:22.849 --> 00:01:25.909 We are dissecting the career of a Danish rapper 00:01:25.909 --> 00:01:28.730 and songwriter who essentially created his own 00:01:28.730 --> 00:01:31.370 localized genre. I mean, starting around 2015, 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:33.909 he's been successfully synthesizing hip hop, 00:01:34.069 --> 00:01:37.450 R &B, and authentic Ghanaian Afrobeat into this 00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:40.310 certified platinum selling formula in Denmark. 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:42.790 It's wild. It really altered the whole sonic 00:01:42.790 --> 00:01:45.010 landscape of the region's pop music. So the mission 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:46.730 for our deep dive today is to figure out the 00:01:46.730 --> 00:01:49.189 actual mechanics of that synthesis. How does 00:01:49.189 --> 00:01:51.510 an artist take these deeply personal diverse 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:55.109 cultural roots, specifically his Ghanaian heritage 00:01:55.109 --> 00:01:57.870 and his Danish upbringing, and use them to dominate 00:01:57.870 --> 00:02:00.150 national charts. And win over some notoriously 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:03.049 tough music credits along the way. Exactly. And 00:02:03.049 --> 00:02:05.769 eventually land on one of the biggest global 00:02:05.769 --> 00:02:08.250 entertainment platforms in existence, because 00:02:08.250 --> 00:02:10.389 this isn't just a standard walk through a discography. 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:12.550 No, definitely not. This is a master class in 00:02:12.550 --> 00:02:15.490 resilience, iterating on your identity, and really 00:02:15.490 --> 00:02:19.509 turning early. lukewarm feedback into undeniable 00:02:19.509 --> 00:02:22.689 commercial dominance. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:02:22.789 --> 00:02:24.830 Let's do it. If we want to understand the architecture 00:02:24.830 --> 00:02:27.280 of his sound. We really have to look at the foundation 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.419 first. So where does the Ice Kid origin story 00:02:30.419 --> 00:02:32.780 actually begin? Well, the foundation is built 00:02:32.780 --> 00:02:35.379 in the capital region of Denmark in a town called 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:37.879 Hillerude. Okay, Hillerude. Yeah. He was born 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:42.539 there in November of 1996. And the source material 00:02:42.539 --> 00:02:45.460 notes that his immersion in music was basically 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:48.409 immediate and constant. Oh, wow. Yeah, his family 00:02:48.409 --> 00:02:50.650 actively cultivated it. They were giving him 00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:52.909 instruments like a guitar from a very young age. 00:02:53.449 --> 00:02:55.810 But the most critical piece of his early musical 00:02:55.810 --> 00:02:57.909 education was actually his time spent singing 00:02:57.909 --> 00:03:00.370 in the local church choir. See, I find that church 00:03:00.370 --> 00:03:03.050 choir detail so fascinating because it completely 00:03:03.050 --> 00:03:05.389 upends the traditional hip -hop origin story. 00:03:05.729 --> 00:03:07.710 When we think of chart -topping rappers, we usually 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:10.210 picture them, I don't know... cutting their teeth 00:03:10.210 --> 00:03:12.729 in underground ciphers or making beats on a laptop 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:15.310 in some basement. Yeah, the classic garage studio 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:19.330 vibe. Exactly. But a choir is an entirely different 00:03:19.330 --> 00:03:21.889 kind of training ground. It teaches you complex 00:03:21.889 --> 00:03:25.469 vocal harmony, breath control, and most importantly, 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.159 It forces you to learn how to project your voice 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:32.120 organically. Yes. Like you have to fill a massive 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:34.819 acoustically challenging room without relying 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.539 heavily on a microphone. Exactly. It provides 00:03:37.539 --> 00:03:40.000 this baseline of vocal assurance that is honestly 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.000 very difficult to fake later when you're just 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.860 standing in a recording booth. For sure. But 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:45.900 you know, his childhood wasn't just the seamless 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:48.919 series of happy music lessons. The article touches 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:51.340 on some pretty significant personal hurdles he 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:53.800 faced. Right. He's spoken publicly about his 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:55.479 struggles with being overweight while growing 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:58.000 up. up in Hillarid. And interestingly, he doesn't 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.939 reflect on that period with resentment. He actually 00:04:00.939 --> 00:04:03.120 stated that dealing with those physical and social 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.180 struggles only made him stronger. It builds a 00:04:06.180 --> 00:04:08.879 psychological armor. I mean, think about it. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.099 When you're navigating the social mind field 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:14.539 of being an overweight kid, you are constantly 00:04:14.539 --> 00:04:17.379 hyper aware of how people perceive you. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:19.779 You either fold under that pressure or you develop 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:22.420 a really robust sense of self to deflect it. 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:25.319 And you can actually see him actively experimenting 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:28.199 with how to project that sense of self early 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:30.899 on, with his very first stage moniker. Yeah, 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:33.699 the early days. Right. Long before he was ice 00:04:33.699 --> 00:04:36.480 kited, he was performing under the name Lil G 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.720 -Boy. In the G, there wasn't just some generic 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:42.639 hip hop trope. It was a highly intentional nod 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:45.310 to Ghana. which is his family's country of origin. 00:04:45.470 --> 00:04:47.350 And putting his heritage right at the forefront 00:04:47.350 --> 00:04:50.009 of his artistic identity in that specific era 00:04:50.009 --> 00:04:52.610 of Danish music is a huge decision. Yeah. He 00:04:52.610 --> 00:04:54.689 is basically signaling to the audience exactly 00:04:54.689 --> 00:04:57.129 who he is before they even hear a single note 00:04:57.129 --> 00:04:59.709 of his music. Which is so brave. I look at that 00:04:59.709 --> 00:05:02.449 early alias Lil G -boy and it reminds me of a 00:05:02.449 --> 00:05:04.850 superhero trying on their first rough draft costume. 00:05:04.930 --> 00:05:07.459 That's a great way to put it. Like, it's functional, 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:09.819 it points to the overarching theme of who he 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:12.160 wants to be, but it hasn't quite evolved into 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:15.019 that final, streamlined, iconic form, you know? 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:17.560 The form he'd eventually find when he changed 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.040 his name to Ice Kid in 2014. Right, it took some 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:22.959 iteration. But I'm curious about the musical 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:25.649 climate in Denmark at that time. was leaning 00:05:25.649 --> 00:05:28.670 so heavily into his Ghanaian roots, both in his 00:05:28.670 --> 00:05:31.769 name and his sound, was that a major commercial 00:05:31.769 --> 00:05:35.290 risk in the mid 2010s Danish hip hop scene. Oh, 00:05:35.290 --> 00:05:37.629 definitely. I imagine the mainstream was leaning 00:05:37.629 --> 00:05:40.790 much more toward like traditional boom bap or 00:05:40.790 --> 00:05:43.910 maybe mimicking American trap music. It was. 00:05:44.089 --> 00:05:46.569 But what's fascinating here is how those specific 00:05:46.569 --> 00:05:49.230 early childhood experiences actually insulated 00:05:49.230 --> 00:05:51.189 him from the pressure of that commercial risk. 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:53.990 Oh really? How so? Well, when you combine the 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.899 structural musical immersion of the church choir, 00:05:57.420 --> 00:05:59.639 which gives you an unshakable confidence in your 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:02.000 actual instrument, your voice, with the emotional 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.459 resiliency built overcoming that childhood adversity. 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:07.339 You get an artist who just isn't easily swayed 00:06:07.339 --> 00:06:10.850 by passing industry trends. I see. That foundation 00:06:10.850 --> 00:06:13.910 of emotional hardiness and vocal certainty is 00:06:13.910 --> 00:06:16.129 exactly what allowed him to take the risk of 00:06:16.129 --> 00:06:18.930 introducing polyrhythmic high -energy afro beat 00:06:18.930 --> 00:06:21.509 into what was a predominantly Nordic musical 00:06:21.509 --> 00:06:23.949 climate. Which is such a contrast. It is, and 00:06:23.949 --> 00:06:26.610 it laid the groundwork for a level of authenticity 00:06:26.610 --> 00:06:29.029 that an audience eventually just has to respect 00:06:29.029 --> 00:06:30.970 even if they don't immediately understand it. 00:06:31.029 --> 00:06:33.509 He knew exactly what his sonic identity was, 00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:36.410 and he was just prepared to wait for the Danish 00:06:36.410 --> 00:06:38.189 music scene to catch up to him. Yeah, exactly. 00:06:38.269 --> 00:06:40.339 And that brings us to the harsh reality of the 00:06:40.339 --> 00:06:43.379 music industry because the transition from confident 00:06:43.379 --> 00:06:47.000 local talent to charting professional is rarely 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:51.279 a straight line. Never is. In June 2015, he officially 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:53.839 enters the arena with his debut single, Coco 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:56.399 Chanel. And then he follows it up in October 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:00.139 2016 with his first extended play titled Afrodansker. 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:02.560 Yeah and that title Afrodansker which translates 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:05.800 to Afrodain is him fully cementing that dual 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:08.060 identity. Right there on the cover. He's forcing 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:10.199 the listener to acknowledge the synthesis of 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:12.480 these two cultures right out of the gate. And 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:14.839 he went to significant lengths to make sure the 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.660 visual representation of this project was as 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:20.279 authentic as the sonic one. Yeah, the music video. 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:23.379 Right. For the track Afrikaner, he actually traveled 00:07:23.379 --> 00:07:26.360 to Ghana to shoot the music video on location. 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:29.139 Which is a tremendous logistical and financial 00:07:29.139 --> 00:07:32.500 commitment for a relatively unproven artist in 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:35.100 2016. Huge commitment. He isn't just shooting 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:37.680 a video against a green screen in a Copenhagen 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.649 studio. He's flying to another continent to make 00:07:40.649 --> 00:07:43.310 sure the visual thesis of his roots is completely 00:07:43.310 --> 00:07:45.290 bulletproof. But unfortunately. Yeah, as any 00:07:45.290 --> 00:07:48.970 creative knows, effort and authenticity do not 00:07:48.970 --> 00:07:51.209 automatically shield you from the pens of music 00:07:51.209 --> 00:07:53.870 critics. They really don't. When the Afrodansker 00:07:53.870 --> 00:07:57.209 EP dropped, the reception from the critical establishment 00:07:57.209 --> 00:08:00.360 was decidedly mixed. Sound Venue, which is a 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:02.579 major tastemaker publication in Denmark. Very 00:08:02.579 --> 00:08:04.600 influential. Alright, they handed the EP a middle 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:06.860 of the row three out of six stars. And you know, 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:09.579 a three -star review can often be more frustrating 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:12.379 than a one -star review. Oh, totally. Because 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:14.579 it implies competence, but just the complete 00:08:14.579 --> 00:08:18.220 lack of essential impact. Exactly. The specific 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:24.660 critique from Sound Venue was that, quote, Ouch. 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:27.180 Yeah, they were essentially calling his music 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:30.259 superficial. Once to party, but not much else. 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:33.399 I mean, when you have poured your dual heritage 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:36.580 and probably your life savings into a project, 00:08:37.220 --> 00:08:39.799 reading that has to be a gut punch. A massive 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:42.580 gut punch. To me, it's like an architect who 00:08:42.580 --> 00:08:45.980 spends years building this incredibly vibrant, 00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:49.120 fun, visually stunning facade for a restaurant. 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:51.649 OK. Yeah. And people are having fun with the 00:08:51.649 --> 00:08:53.809 appetizers outside, but when the critic finally 00:08:53.809 --> 00:08:55.730 walks through the front door, they write a review 00:08:55.730 --> 00:08:57.529 complaining that there's no main course. There's 00:08:57.529 --> 00:08:59.409 no interior rooms to actually live in. Right. 00:08:59.490 --> 00:09:01.690 They're saying it lacks structural depth. They're 00:09:01.690 --> 00:09:05.389 saying it's beautiful, but shallow. So is a three 00:09:05.389 --> 00:09:07.809 -star review early on actually a blessing in 00:09:07.809 --> 00:09:10.269 disguise? Because how does an artist recover 00:09:10.269 --> 00:09:12.649 from being told their core sound is just shallow 00:09:12.649 --> 00:09:15.370 party music? Well, the standard reaction is usually 00:09:15.370 --> 00:09:18.740 defensive, right? Artists will often just double 00:09:18.740 --> 00:09:21.240 down on their original sound out of spite. Or 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:23.620 they completely cave. Right. They abandon it 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:26.139 to chase the critic's approval. But Ice Kede 00:09:26.139 --> 00:09:29.139 took a third path. He executed this brilliant 00:09:29.139 --> 00:09:31.639 bypass of the traditional critical establishment 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:33.669 altogether. Oh, this is my favorite part. In 00:09:33.669 --> 00:09:36.990 May 2016, he releases a track called Guldens. 00:09:37.450 --> 00:09:40.230 And this wasn't a standard single rollout. He 00:09:40.230 --> 00:09:42.889 specifically engineered the song to celebrate 00:09:42.889 --> 00:09:46.149 the local football club, FC Copenhagen, winning 00:09:46.149 --> 00:09:48.870 the Danish Superliga and the Danish Cup. Which 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:55.669 is just a man. The music journalists at SoundVenue 00:09:55.669 --> 00:09:58.129 are telling people your music lacks depth. Yeah. 00:09:58.289 --> 00:10:00.330 You go find an audience that doesn't care about 00:10:00.330 --> 00:10:02.740 intellectual depth in that moment. Yes. You find 00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:04.720 an audience that only cares about visceral emotion, 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:07.600 and nothing is more visceral than sports fandom. 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:11.679 Sports anthems completely bypass logical critique 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:14.259 because you don't consume them in isolation with 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:16.620 a pair of headphones. You consume them collectively 00:10:16.620 --> 00:10:19.759 in a massive stadium surrounded by thousands 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:22.580 of people experiencing the exact same rush of 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:24.860 adrenaline. You've nailed the psychology of it 00:10:24.860 --> 00:10:27.519 perfectly. Right. When you tie your music to 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.159 that kind of collective memory, you basically 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:33.779 become untouchable to critics. Exactly. By marrying 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:37.120 his signature Afrobeat -infused sound directly 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:40.360 to a massive cultural touchstone like Danish 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:44.059 national sports pride, he embedded his art into 00:10:44.059 --> 00:10:46.659 the cultural heartbeat of the country. And the 00:10:46.659 --> 00:10:48.639 numbers backed it up. The commercial results 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:51.769 were staggering. Goldens bypassed the critical 00:10:51.769 --> 00:10:54.830 conversation entirely and went on to achieve 00:10:54.830 --> 00:10:57.230 double platinum certification. He essentially 00:10:57.230 --> 00:11:00.370 used the football stadium as a side door to mainstream 00:11:00.370 --> 00:11:02.710 dominance. He did. He proved his sound could 00:11:02.710 --> 00:11:05.409 move the masses, regardless of what some reviewer 00:11:05.409 --> 00:11:07.769 thought of his lyrical themes. Yeah. But he doesn't 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:09.870 just rest on his laurels as the local sports 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:12.169 anthem guy, right? No, not at all. He uses that 00:11:12.169 --> 00:11:15.179 momentum to scale his operation. And this is 00:11:15.179 --> 00:11:17.419 where the trajectory of his career expands from 00:11:17.419 --> 00:11:20.720 a really cool national success story to a massive 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.720 global export. Yeah, the major inflection point 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:26.740 for his global reach arrives in 2020. That's 00:11:26.740 --> 00:11:30.519 when he releases the single Erudemelovat. And 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:33.179 here's where it gets really interesting, because 00:11:33.179 --> 00:11:36.620 the domestic performance of this track is phenomenal 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:39.600 on its own. It was huge. It rockets to number 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.049 one on the Danish Top 40. It ends up being the 00:11:42.049 --> 00:11:44.850 number four track of the entire year in Denmark. 00:11:45.710 --> 00:11:47.750 And the sources show it eventually hit quadruple 00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:51.090 platinum certification by early 2024. Incredible 00:11:51.090 --> 00:11:53.049 numbers. But the domestic numbers are only half 00:11:53.049 --> 00:11:56.210 the story. This highly localized Danish language 00:11:56.210 --> 00:11:58.649 track gets picked up and placed on the official 00:11:58.649 --> 00:12:01.309 global soundtrack for the video game FIFA 21. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:04.220 And honestly, the magnitude of a FIFA soundtrack 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:06.899 placement is really difficult to overstate in 00:12:06.899 --> 00:12:09.220 the modern music industry. It's massive. You 00:12:09.220 --> 00:12:11.480 are talking about a franchise played by tens 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:13.779 of millions of people globally. These players 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.159 are spending hundreds of hours navigating menus, 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:18.580 building teams and playing matches. Right, playing 00:12:18.580 --> 00:12:21.230 it every single day. And all the while, this 00:12:21.230 --> 00:12:24.429 highly curated loop of music plays constantly 00:12:24.429 --> 00:12:27.649 in the background. It is this interactive, repetitive 00:12:27.649 --> 00:12:30.610 exposure that traditional radio simply cannot 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:33.289 replicate. Exactly. And let's think about the 00:12:33.289 --> 00:12:36.409 mechanics of why this specific song worked so 00:12:36.409 --> 00:12:39.090 well on that platform. You have teenagers in 00:12:39.090 --> 00:12:42.190 Brazil, Japan, or the United States who do not 00:12:42.190 --> 00:12:45.090 speak a single syllable of Danish. That one word. 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:47.690 The lyrical content is entirely lost on them. 00:12:47.870 --> 00:12:51.809 But Afrobeat, at its core, relies on syncopation 00:12:51.809 --> 00:12:55.009 and driving, polyrhythmic percussion, and that 00:12:55.009 --> 00:12:57.690 rhythm completely transcends language barriers. 00:12:57.990 --> 00:12:59.809 It hits you on a different level. Yeah, the beat 00:12:59.809 --> 00:13:01.870 hits your brain stem and makes you want to move 00:13:01.870 --> 00:13:04.309 long before your auditory cortex even tries to 00:13:04.309 --> 00:13:06.649 translate the words. Yeah. He took the cultural 00:13:06.649 --> 00:13:08.929 synthesis of Hillarude in Ghana and injected 00:13:08.929 --> 00:13:11.230 it directly into the subconscious of the entire 00:13:11.230 --> 00:13:13.600 gaming world. It's the ultimate validation of 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:15.580 his sound. It proved that the musical foundation 00:13:15.580 --> 00:13:17.600 he'd been building since his church choir days 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:20.620 had a universal frequency. Yeah. But, you know, 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:23.639 even with quadruple platinum plaques and global 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:25.899 video game exposure, Ice Guide was still playing 00:13:25.899 --> 00:13:29.039 the long game. He wasn't done. No, he had achieved 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:31.720 undeniable commercial success, but there was 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:34.779 still the ghost of that 2016 critique lingering 00:13:34.779 --> 00:13:38.120 around. That accusation that he only wanted to 00:13:38.120 --> 00:13:40.799 party and lacked artistic depth. Right, the missing 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:43.240 interior rooms from our architect metaphor earlier. 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:45.759 He had built the biggest, brightest facade in 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:47.700 the country, but the critics still wanted to 00:13:47.700 --> 00:13:50.139 see inside the house. And he finally opens the 00:13:50.139 --> 00:13:53.299 front door in June 2022 with the release of his 00:13:53.299 --> 00:13:56.720 debut studio album. OK. The title alone, Engine 00:13:56.779 --> 00:14:00.659 Uden Tornay, which translates to No Roses Without 00:14:00.659 --> 00:14:04.000 Thorns, clearly telegraphs a shift in his artistic 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.360 intention. It is a deliberate pivot toward vulnerability. 00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:10.059 You don't name an album No Roses Without Thorns 00:14:10.059 --> 00:14:12.360 if you're just trying to soundtrack another football 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:14.779 victory. Definitely not. So how did the market 00:14:14.779 --> 00:14:17.860 and the critics respond to this shift? The album 00:14:17.860 --> 00:14:19.779 performed exceptionally well commercially. It 00:14:19.779 --> 00:14:21.679 reached number three on the charts and achieved 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:24.019 gold status, and its lead single, Drippy, went 00:14:24.019 --> 00:14:26.720 platinum. But the critical reception is the real 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:30.059 story here. Sound Venue, the exact same publication 00:14:30.059 --> 00:14:33.259 that handed his debut EP a lukewarm three stars, 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.779 reviewed this album and awarded it an overwhelmingly 00:14:36.779 --> 00:14:40.500 positive five out of six stars. That is a remarkable 00:14:40.500 --> 00:14:43.600 critical redemption arc. What was the core difference 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:46.370 in their assessment this time around? Well, the 00:14:46.370 --> 00:14:49.049 reviewer specifically praised his continued mastery 00:14:49.049 --> 00:14:52.789 of Afrobeat -centric music, but the pivotal detail 00:14:52.789 --> 00:14:55.110 was their observation of his emotional tone. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.100 Interesting. They highlighted that Ice Kid finally 00:14:58.100 --> 00:15:01.220 revealed his melancholy. They noted that he was 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:03.539 showing a deeper, more vulnerable side of his 00:15:03.539 --> 00:15:05.980 lived experience while still maintaining his 00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:08.799 core optimistic perspective that life is ultimately, 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:11.620 as they quoted, amazing. So I really want to 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:13.399 examine this dynamic for a second because I see 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:15.559 this happen across all genres of music. I for 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:18.080 sure. An artist makes highly energetic, joyful 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:21.659 music and critics call it shallow. Then the artist 00:15:21.659 --> 00:15:24.159 releases a project exploring their sadness or 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:26.279 their melancholy and suddenly the critics hail 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:28.179 it as a masterpiece. It's a classic pattern. 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:31.299 It almost feels like a misery tax. Do critics 00:15:31.299 --> 00:15:34.740 unfairly demand that artists showcase their pain 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:38.240 or sadness in order to be taken seriously as 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.080 true creatives? That's a great question. But 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.240 why is the ability to engineer pure joy and make 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:46.840 a stadium dance considered less artistically 00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:50.179 valid than the ability to make someone cry? Well, 00:15:50.179 --> 00:15:53.000 if we connect this to the bigger picture of how 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:56.159 art is evaluated, there is undoubtedly a historical 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.080 bias in critical circles that equates suffering 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:01.799 with profundity. Absolutely. However, in the 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.480 specific context of Icekeed's evolution, I don't 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:06.940 believe the praise for his melancholy was simply 00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:09.740 critics demanding a misery tax. I think it was 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:11.960 a genuine acknowledgement of his three -dimensional 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:13.919 humanity. So you're saying the vulnerability 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:16.240 wasn't him just conforming to a critical standard, 00:16:16.379 --> 00:16:18.840 but rather him finally feeling secure enough 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:21.879 in his to show the full spectrum of the kid from 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:24.379 Hillaried. Precisely. Remember the boy who struggled 00:16:24.379 --> 00:16:26.240 with his weight? The kid who had to build that 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:28.539 psychological armor to navigate his early years? 00:16:28.539 --> 00:16:31.519 Right, right. That person experienced deep discomfort, 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:35.139 self -doubt, and struggle. When his early tracks 00:16:35.139 --> 00:16:38.720 only showcased the party, the relentless celebration, 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:42.559 it was undeniably infectious, but it was perhaps 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.320 only a curated fraction of his true self. That 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:47.940 makes total sense. By injecting that melancholy, 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:50.879 by acknowledging the thorns alongside the roses, 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:54.259 he wasn't abandoning his jury, he was contextualizing 00:16:54.259 --> 00:16:57.639 it. Wow. That duality is what separates a fleeting 00:16:57.639 --> 00:16:59.860 trend from an artist with long -term staying 00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:02.399 power. It proves you can soundtrack the Friday 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:05.259 night party, You can also soundtrack the introspective 00:17:05.259 --> 00:17:07.619 Sunday Morning Drive. And the data absolutely 00:17:07.619 --> 00:17:10.460 supports that theory of staying power. He didn't 00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:12.460 just peak with the critical acclaim of that album 00:17:12.460 --> 00:17:14.880 and fade away. No, he kept going. The source 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:17.140 material outlines his continued dominance in 00:17:17.140 --> 00:17:20.700 the Danish music ecosystem. In 2024, he teams 00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:23.339 up with Tobias Raheem for a track called Darkroom. 00:17:23.420 --> 00:17:25.980 Another massive hit. That collaboration goes 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:28.839 double platinum and becomes the sixth most streamed 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:31.119 song in all of Denmark for that entire year. 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:33.640 And he is maintaining that momentum right up 00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:36.519 to the present day, with the sources noting a 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:40.079 recent 2026 single release titled Acceleration. 00:17:41.069 --> 00:17:43.269 The title seems pretty fitting, honestly. He 00:17:43.269 --> 00:17:45.569 is still pushing the throttle. He really has 00:17:45.569 --> 00:17:47.750 managed to establish a creative formula that 00:17:47.750 --> 00:17:50.450 is perpetually sustainable because it's rooted 00:17:50.450 --> 00:17:54.049 in his actual evolving lived experience rather 00:17:54.049 --> 00:17:56.890 than him simply trying to reverse engineer whatever 00:17:56.890 --> 00:17:59.269 happens to be trending on streaming platforms 00:17:59.269 --> 00:18:02.579 that week. It is a genuinely masterfully navigated 00:18:02.579 --> 00:18:04.759 career. So let's pull all these threads together. 00:18:04.940 --> 00:18:07.779 Sure. We started with German Crepe, a kid learning 00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:10.220 vocal projection in a Hilary and church choir, 00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:12.880 building emotional armor to deal with personal 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:14.920 struggles and trying to figure out how to honor 00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:17.819 his Ghanaian roots with early stage names like 00:18:17.819 --> 00:18:20.619 Lil G Boy. Yeah. We watched him endure the sting 00:18:20.619 --> 00:18:23.319 of critics calling his early work shallow, only 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:25.680 to outflank them by tying his Afrobeat sound 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:28.240 directly to the tribal joy of a football championship. 00:18:28.380 --> 00:18:30.740 A brilliant move. Then we saw that sound scale 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:32.920 up globally to the FIFA video game franchise, 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:35.740 proving that rhythm speaks way louder than language. 00:18:36.059 --> 00:18:38.460 And finally, we saw him mature into an artist 00:18:38.460 --> 00:18:41.559 confident enough to show his melancholy, earning 00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:44.799 five -star acclaim and cementing his legacy as 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:48.319 a multi -platinum powerhouse. He proves that 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:51.099 the most effective response to criticism isn't 00:18:51.099 --> 00:18:53.900 to change who you are. but to become a higher 00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:56.099 resolution version of yourself. That's a perfect 00:18:56.099 --> 00:18:58.380 way to summarize it. So what does this all mean 00:18:58.380 --> 00:19:00.819 for everyone listening to this right now? What 00:19:00.819 --> 00:19:03.420 is the ultimate takeaway from the rise of an 00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:06.259 artist like Icekite? I think his story forces 00:19:06.259 --> 00:19:08.940 us to look at the modern mechanics of cultural 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:11.119 export, and it really leaves us with a fascinating 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.220 dynamic to consider. Okay. For decades, the ultimate 00:19:14.220 --> 00:19:16.799 gatekeepers of what music crossed borders were 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:19.880 traditional radio DJs and record label executives. 00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:23.339 Right. But when a highly specific localized Danish 00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:26.559 language Afrobeat track blows up globally because 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:29.839 it was placed in a soccer video game, it completely 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:32.200 changes the paradigm. It really does. Are the 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:34.859 algorithms of global gaming platforms and tech 00:19:34.859 --> 00:19:37.759 companies now replacing traditional music institutions 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.819 as the ultimate curators of local cultural export? 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:43.819 That is a wild thought. Like, does the music 00:19:43.819 --> 00:19:46.559 lose its intimate cultural meaning or does it 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:49.059 boldly invite the entire world to learn about 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:52.089 a place like Hilaryud? is a game developer in 00:19:52.089 --> 00:19:54.569 Vancouver now holding the keys to what a teenager 00:19:54.569 --> 00:19:57.750 in Tokyo learns about the sound of Denmark. It 00:19:57.750 --> 00:20:00.190 is a massive shift in how culture is distributed, 00:20:00.309 --> 00:20:03.029 and it is something to really ponder the next 00:20:03.029 --> 00:20:05.410 time you hear a new artist pop up in the background 00:20:05.410 --> 00:20:07.750 of your favorite game. I definitely encourage 00:20:07.750 --> 00:20:10.009 everyone to keep an ear out for how other local 00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:12.589 artists are navigating this massive global stage. 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:15.089 I love that perspective. The gatekeepers have 00:20:15.089 --> 00:20:17.730 changed, and if you can find a universal rhythm... 00:20:17.769 --> 00:20:20.329 you can bypass them entirely. Exactly. Well, 00:20:20.470 --> 00:20:22.730 thank you for joining us as we unpack this incredible 00:20:22.730 --> 00:20:25.150 journey. Keep your ears open and we will catch 00:20:25.150 --> 00:20:26.609 you on the next deep dive.