About 9ice

9ice (born Alexander Abolore Adegbola Adigun Alapomeji Ajifolajifaola,on 17 January 1980) is a Nigerian musician. 9ice is a south-westerner from Ogbomoso in Oyo State but he grew up in the district of Bariga in Lagos. 9ice won the award for Best Hip Hop Artist at the MTV Africa Music Awards in 2008. At the third edition of the Hip Hop World Awards held in Nigeria, he won the Revelation of the Year award and the Best Male Vocal Performer. A month later at the first SoundCity Music Video Awards, he was nominated in the category of Best New Artist. 9ice's biggest single is titled "Gongo Aso". He is the founder of Alapomeji Records. In 2014, 9ice revealed that he was going to contest for a political office in his native Ogbomosho in Oyo state. He later joined the All Progressive Congress (APC) and declared his interest to contest for a seat at the Federal House of Representatives. He later lost out during the primaries. 9ice was later named as a Special Adviser to the Oyo state Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. 9ice attended Abule Okuta Primary School and CMS Grammar School, and dropped out from his Law course at the Lagos State University to concentrate on music. He grew up in a polygamous home of five wives and nine children. His parents found about his singing career a year after it started around 2000. Before then, 9ice wrote his own songs dating back to when he was just 14 years old. It is worth noting that as a big fan of Pasuma Wonder, he kick-started his singing career with Fuji music. He derives his inspiration from his environment, and music from the likes of Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Adé, Tatalo Alamu, Late Alhaji Ayinla Omowura, Late Alhaji Haruna Ishola. After recording his first demo, 9ice joined a group called Mysterious Boys with whom he did a couple of tracks before going on to form his own, now defunct, group Abinibi. Having recorded his first demo titled Risi De Alagbaja in 1996 and his first solo song, Little Money in 2000, 9ice had to wait till 2005 before himself and his music started gaining recognition in the Nigerian music market. The first major break for 9ice came from his first single title Little Money and not long after then he did collaborations with different Nigerian artist that immediately prompted the release of another hit single title Ganja Man. Id.Cabasa produced Ganja Man which was released with other songs in March 2006. The reggae tone and playful style of the song made it an instant hit. He later found his own record company and release all other album under his label ALapomeji Records. 9ice is known for his use of the Yoruba language in his music, but mixes the Yoruba proverbs with English, broken English, Hausa and Igbo sometimes. 9ice compares himself toYoussou N'Dour who has won a couple of Grammy with music recorded in his mother tongue, and Yvonne Chaka-Chaka whose music has also embraced her language. He has been quoted as saying "English language has been imposed on us but God graciously gave Yoruba language to us.