King of the New School! Dice Ailes covers Latest Issue of Vibe.NG Magazine

Signed to one of the biggest labels on the continent, Dice Ailes took quite a while to make his mark on the industry but once people discovered his talent, there was no stopping the Chocolate City act.

2017 proved to be a good year for the singer/rapper with singles like Ella & Otedola gaining massive airplay establishing him at the forefront of a genius revolution in Nigerian music.

Coming off the release of his first single in 2018 titled Mr Biggs, Dice Ailes covers the latest issue of Vibe.NG magazine as he reveals quite a number of things about himself and his music.

Speaking to Michael Eno, Dice reveals how he joined Chocolate City, his favorite of all his songs and also went into details of how he almost got kidnapped a few months ago.

Read excerpts below:

On how his parents reacted to his decision to pursue music:

My Dad wasn’t okay with the idea of me doing music, ‘cos he wanted me to study medicine. My mum didn’t really mind, in fact, she used to give me money for studio sessions then. However, I first had to prove to her that I really wanted to do music. So I saved up some money and recorded a few songs for her to listen to. It was then she knew I was serious about it and she started giving me money for studio sessions.

On getting recognition from Femi Otedola after dropping the song named after him:

Yea, Cuppy and I are really close now and Femi Otedola is a fan of the song. I met him after I released the track and he told me he was a huge fan of the song. Every time I speak to Mr Femi on the phone, he always goes “Otedola with the money o” which I find very funny.

On how he joined Chocolate City:

In 2013, I came back to Nigeria to promote a song called Yemisi, and while I was promoting, by chance I met M.I, who heard my music and was blown away. Before I went back to Canada, M.I said he wanted me to meet with Audu (Maikori) who also heard and loved the song and a couple of others as well. Contract talks started going on and eight months down the line, Chocolate City sent the contracts to Canada, which we signed and the rest, they say, is history.

On his favorite of all his songs:

I think Ella is my favourite song so far and that’s because of the effort I put into the production. Even for the video, we had to travel six hours and were freezing in the cold. I even broke my wrists snowboarding from the top of the hill down. There was a lot of work put into the song and I feel bad that it didn’t get the type of recognition that I thought it was going to get. People generally love it but they don’t understand it. So I urge everyone to pay attention to the lyrics, video, production and everything involved with the song.

On how he almost got kidnapped:

At about 4 am, we were on our way to the hotel from a club and then we noticed a car following us. Shortly after that, the car sped up, overtook us and blocked our front, while another car blocked our back and they all came out with guns. At this point, the security team given to us by the club that hosted us kept on driving without looking back, and that’s when I knew we were actually targeted and the kidnap attempt was planned by someone. But luckily, God was on our side and we escaped it.

Cover Story: John E. Michael

Photography: Amazing Klef

Styling: Mag Payne