Cleo Ice Queen is a Zambian hip-hop artist who made her first nation-wide hit titled Big Dreams in 2011. She first came into the spotlight when she appeared in Big Brother Africa. Since then, she has released many songs, one of which is “Forever” featuring Jah Prayzah.” Released on the 1st of March 2019, the music video emphasises culture, tradition, and African fashion and mixes modern traditional dance combined with western clothing. In her music video, IceQueen makes it a point to link Zambian history to modern-day style. She does this by incorporating traditional dance with modern hip-hop culture.
The song signifies how fertile Africa is and the power one has if he is African. “You’re the only one I look to. You’re the only one I want to call boo. You got the flavor, the sauce, the juice. I come through, African Queen, Jah Prayzah, he a king. Royalty baby, we light up the scene”. These lyrics, combined with the background of the music video, purport the beauty and prestige of Africa and Africanness. The music video stresses these tunes by starring traditional African dance, ancestral clothes, and the Zambian language infused with English.
The union of people dancing together in her video explicates the power and togetherness of African people. In addition, the music video also shows colorful Animals, plants, and women dancing sexually. In hip hop, women are advertised more when men sexualize them. Thus while this music video combines both Zambian culture and African dance, it also glorifies women’s image sexually. Culture has pushed society puts women secondary to men by excluding them from positions of power regardless of their skills. However, it expects women to be powerful in activities that concern men’s desires, which is “sexualising women.” This creates a societal hierarchy that encourages such behaviors. Ice Queen plays into this notion in many of her music videos complies with this ideology. However, she still manages to demonstrate cultural awareness.
Social media:
Instagram: cleoicequeenVerifiedFollow Cleoicequeen
Twitter: @Cleo_icequeen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialcleoicequeen
https://digsty.com/cleoicequeen
Citation: http://oyos.news/a-hit-single-from-jah-prayzah-and-cleo-ice-queen-from-zambia-on-1-march-624