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By Keya Modessa

Iceberg Slimm is smiling as he speaks. You can hear it in the tone of his voice. His debut album 'Da World On Ice' hit stores nationwide earlier this year and has received major support from UK urban network Channel U and London's Choice FM. With a music career that has already seen him work with the likes of Beverley Knight, Hill St. Soul and Shola Ama, Iceberg Slimm has steadily built up his fan base and gained respect on the UK hip-hop scene. His creative performance and style has also led to a number of forthcoming UK tour dates supporting the highly skilled rapper Nas.

To top things off, the single 'Can't Get Enough', which he features on with Canadian born Asian singer Raghav, shot in at No.10 in the UK charts, following its release in March. Twenty-three-year-old Duane Dyer, or Ice as he is better known, explains how the positive feedback he has received from this single, has taken his music to a much wider audience. "The Asian community has shown me so much amazing love in the past months. When I walk down the streets now I get hails from Asian guys. They show so much support because of me working with Indian music."

As with many other UK artists, Ice's story is not told without a struggle. Taking inspiration from a young Michael Jackson, Ice was singing and performing from an early age. By the age of 12, he knew that he wanted to be an artist, and formed his first crew with his cousins whilst still in school. "I used to be in a rap group called Execution Squad, an independent group from East London that signed a deal with Telstar Distributions. We got a lot of love from Westwood and stuff. I was never the best rapper; I always wanted to learn to be as good as my cousins." During the late 90s, the group performed at a monthly night called 'Mudlumz', in Dingwalls, Camden Town. At that time, the night was unique in showcasing rap and promoting UK hip-hop. Execution Squad were featured on a number of recorded tapes, which were distributed throughout London. The tapes, and the night itself soon had a steady following, and Ice became part of the UK underground hip-hop community, even if it was on a small scale to begin with. After gaining confidence in his skills as a rapper and learning from those around him, Ice decided to take his own direction and start work on his solo career. "I got to the stage when I wanted to be a bit different, and that's why I branched off and wanted to be Iceberg Slimm."

Duane, 23, chose his stage name after reading a book entitled 'PIMP', written by Chicago born Robert Beck, aka the original Iceberg Slim. "People always assume it [the book] was all about the pimp side, but it wasn't. It was about this man's real life and the situation he had growing up with his mum and dad. It was very similar to my life story. So I took things from his negatives and positives and decided to pay homage to the guy that put me on the map, who kept me on the straight." Ice got his first solo break in November 1999, when he wore a Union Jack suit and a cowboy hat for a performance at London's Subterrania, where he was first spotted by Polydor. A few months later, in 2000, Ice released a track called 'Nursery Rhymes' from his four-track debut EP. At the time, Ice was not signed to any label, but 'Nursery Rhymes' caught the ears of four major recording companies: MCA, Universal, Sony and Polydor. "I was about 18 and it was a great experience, because at that time a lot of UK urban music wasn't being signed. Kele Le Roc was coming out of a deal and Damage were just back on the scene after a long break. A lot of the UK stuff was having trouble and there wasn't a lot of rap or garage. It was a great feeling and everyone was jumping on that track, but I was very confused because so many labels were getting involved."

In the end, Ice signed with Polydor Records. However, things didn't turn out as well as planned, and the signing only led to a number of live performances, including one at the prestigious MOBO Awards and a spot on the Radio 1 stage at the Notting Hill Carnival in August 2000. Even with a major record deal, it still couldn't guarantee success. "I wasn't happy with the A&R. One guy who was working on my project was looking after all the American imports like Eve, D12, Ruff Ryders, etc, and I was being pushed to the back of the shelf. Being the only UK rapper and having so many pop artists around, it was just too much to compete with. When I saw they were taking an hour to get back to me, when 6 months before they were taking five minutes, I realised that things weren't as they were meant to be. So I thought 'Let's end it before it gets bitter'." After his departure from Polydor, Ice worked with a number of UK acts. Ice worked with Shola Ama in 2000, on her massive track 'Imagine', and Hill St Soul on the remix of the track 'All That (+ a Bag O' Chips)', which was featured on her album 'Copasetik & Cool'. He was also featured on the remix of the Damage track 'So What If I', which was used on the 2001 MOBO compilation CD.

Since terminating his contract with the heavy weight record label, Ice joined forces with independent label Urban Star, and released his debut album, 'Da World On Ice' in March this year. The confident and humble rapper speaks proudly of his decision to leave the record company that has signed artists like 50 Cent, Mya, and Black Eyed Peas. "People assume that if you get signed to a major, you never come back. I want to prove to the UK industry that my label does believe in me, and that I can put something together, which they can go out and sell. This album is telling the public, that it is now my time to shine; it is time for the world to watch me. My record label now [Urban Star Records] is major to me, because they don't try to mould or change me, and they put my album in the HMV and Virgin stores."

Aside from his musical career, Ice has brought to life a business venture called 'Frojack Entertainment'. The company, which began in 1999, works with his independent label as a fraternity, bringing together young, fresh hip-hop artists.

Living in the fickle music industry, Ice has become only too familiar with the pitfalls that other UK artists are faced with. "The UK could and should support more of their own. When you watch what happens in the USA, for example with artists like Nelly, if his sales went down world wide he can go back to St. Louis and still sell a good amount of records, because they've got support from their own."

Partly due to this reason, Ice's business venture offers direction and support to the artists he finds, by helping them to understand the music industry. Many of the camp's members can be heard featuring on certain tracks on his debut. "I've got a lot of different artists I'm working with singer wise and rap wise. Some are used on the album, for example, Koalishon, NV and Chaos. They are all young artists who I have found around the country."

On his debut album, Ice has worked heavily on lyrical content, rather than the over clad gun talk and "bling bling-ness" of many other hip-hop albums. I'm trying to get a message across that you can rap like the old school days and have good times with music; make good tracks that people can sit down and listen to."

Other things to look out for on the album include Ices' collaboration with Coree (formerly of Damage), on the track 'Starship', a cover of the Norman Conners song. Their friendship stems back to when Ice was a new artist, and Damage were at the helm of UK R&B. His collaboration with Coree has already got DJs and the radio-listening public begging the question, 'When will his cover of the classic club anthem, 'Starship' be released?' "That looks like it will be the next release off the album. I am a big fan of that track and everyone on this side of the water loves it. I was pretty scared when I first did it, because it's such a big track. I wrote the lyrics for it about seven times to make sure that people would appreciate it. We're sorting out the video right now, it's got a good look".

For now, the London rapper is happy to carry on promoting his album and speaks positively about performing with Nas in the future. "I'm taking every day as it comes, the most important thing is to just keep moving. I have already accomplished a lot of things. I've met a lot of different people and seen a lot of different cultures. I'm going to be performing with Nas in Manchester and Scotland, someone I think is a pioneer in this game; a guy who is a leader, and who talks sense."

With so much backing and support from his peers and fans, does Ice ever plan to take his music across the pond? "The US is the last market we want to go conquer, we don't have to worry about going there for now. We are just focusing on our side of the world, and then we can take it over there with the support from our side."

Thus it seems that UK hip-hop fans can look forward to much, much more from the tip of this Iceberg.

'Da World On Ice' is out now.