DICE AILES – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Dice Ailes, is a young Nigerian singer, songwriter and rapper. In July 2014, he signed a record deal with Chocolate City and then got nominated for Rookie of the Year at The Headies 2016. Dice achieved recognition in 2016 for his CKay-produced single «Miracle» featuring Lil Kesh. On December 2016, the artist shared stage with likes of WSTRN, Krept and Konan, Migos alongside Lil Kesh at the «Beat FM Xmas concert» 2016 in Lagos. In 2018 he was nominated as Best New Artist at SMVP awards.

Dicey have a bunch of singles since he began his music career, we start a long list from 2014 “Fantasy” and “Telephone”, in 2015 “Machinery”, 2016 “Miracle”, 2017 “Ella”, 2018 “Mr Biggs”, “Dicey” and “Enough”, 2019 “Alakori” feat Falz, 2020 “Pim Pim” feat Olamide. 

We know Dice is absolute talent and he has a lot more to conquer, Klueless Magazine director and friend of the artist, Giselle Palou, who met Dice in London city in 2017, had the pleasure to interview him for his new single dropped on the Friday 29th of January called “Money Dance”.

K: Dice how are you and how is the pandemic treating you? I see you still managing to get into studio and working non stop and dropping new music. How are you holding your motivation on these difficult times?

D: For me, my biggest passion in life is music so with or without a pandemic you know, I am motivated to create music, because that’s the best way I can express myself, which means I am constantly trying to express through music. The pandemic is making us stay home but it has also been giving me time and space to be able to plan. Throughout 2020 I been planing more for 2021 just planning for my album, I also secured some deals and also stablished my company TMM, so the pandemic has been sort of a blessing to me.

K: Talk to us about “Money Dance”, what’s the message you are giving us with this new single full of rich vibes?

D: Money Dance is the first single of my debut album, you know, is just about motivation for people to go get that money. In 2020 everybody had to be at home because of the pandemic but we are trying to start on the good notes, and you know for everybody who’s dream chasing trying to hustle and get that money. That’s the soundtrack, the hustler soundtrack.

K: As a young fashionista and social media influencer that you are becoming day by day, what is the feedback that you have from your fans? Because you do have a big fans base that they admire you and support you every time with everything you do, either if it’s about your music career or videoclips or photo shoots. Do you think your fans are so important?

D: I mean my fans are very important for me, those are the people that listen to me, they listen to all my expressions. They listen to my music, download it.. they are like my family. And also in this crazy world when there is nobody to talk to, they are there for me to listen always and I really appreciate that I have a big community of people that’s constantly showing love, and that is looking out for hearing from me. And when I don’t drop music there is people constantly sending me dms and sending me e-mails and constantly reaching out and as soon as I drop music I can see their excitement, and that gives me a lot of joy. They are definitely very important to me!

K: You had international collaborations, by instance one of your latest which you dropped music with was alongside the popular reggeaton, rap and trap spanish artist Kaydy Cain on November 2019. Do you have any coming collaborations with any other international artist any time soon that you can tell us about?

D: Yes! On the debut album there are a lot of international collaborations, I have a feature with one of the biggest artists in Spain right now on the album. I wouldn’t like to expose names until the album drops, it is a surprise for the fans! We are also working with artists from the UK, and aswell some Nigerian international artists. So they are a lot of exciting features that they all should be looking out for! I’m hoping that by the middle of this year my album will be ready, for now I am switching things around and trying to finalise it as I have a lot of music in my archive!

K: Your single with Olamide in 2020 “Pim Pim” is such a good mood tune, also your feature on “Bombay” feat Tiwa Savage and Steff London would be one of your latest collabs for Celia album by Tiwa Savage on last August 2020. Which would be one of your biggest features that you feel very proud of?

D: I think one of the features I am most proud would be my feature with artist Kaydy Cain, the reason for that one is because that was challenging for me. I had to learn some spanish, it was the first time that I spoke spanish on a track! And then that brought me, you know that was one of the reasons why it brought me over in Spain and I also met like other spanish people, such beautiful people! And that for me was such a beautiful experience, and my most important feature so far! The Tiwa Savage feature I made it was amazing, they all are amazing features I made but they weren’t as challenging as the one with Kaydy. I think this feature will be the one for me.

K: What’s your favourite single at the moment from yours and why?

D: My favourite single at the moment is Money Dance, that’s the latest song and that’s where I am feeling the most right now. Everybody is going up, everybody in different coutries, everyone is feeling the vibes! So that’s definitely my favourite one.

K: What would be a dream collaboration that you would love to do in the near future? Any upcoming talent that you put an ear on?

D: I didn’t put my ear on nobody particularly, but I would love to some day work with Drake, I am a fan of Drake music! I definitely listen to a lot of music, but I like to experiment with myself a lot, and I love to lock myself in and record music by myself. I usually don’t really have the time to collaborate with a lot of artists in studios but I think Drake for sure that would be the one I would be looking forward to be working with.

K: When do you think you started to get on the music scene very hard, as in at which point of your career you thought “yes, finally I kicked it”. Which would be the one song that lifted you up?

D: I think for me was Miracle, Miracle was the first international hit that I had. That one was the first one that blew out in Nigeria as a sort of afrobeat artist. That led to other records as Ella, Otedola.. but the first one for sure is Miracle. It was an amazing feeling, I just moved to Nigeria at the time, and I was trying to familiarize with the industry. I was young and when I dropped the song and when I was performing it in Nigeria, everybody was screaming, and you know that was an exciting moment for me!

K: Which is your favourite Nigerian artist that you really look up to or get inspiration from and why?

D: My favourite artist is Dice! A lot of artists are doing great, shout out to every Nigerian artist who is putting Africa on the map! We are all doing great as a community.

K: Last question for today, out of your music, what would be your next 10 years goals? What are Dice Ailes biggest dreams?

D: For me would be helping society, give back to the community and help a lot of people out of poverty. You know, one of the biggest issues that the world faces, like black people or just minorities over the world faces is the issue with poverty and one of my biggest dreams is to sort of help people and ending it. Getting people educated.. my dream would be changing that! To help people to get a better life. People in Nigeria in the middle of the pandemic they were dealing with the #EndSars protests and I was actively protesting there, because just seeing people getting killed for no reason, and it is not fair. Nigerians we do so much for the government, through music, through sports, through movies, we give so much. We are strong and driven people, and the government is definitely not doing enough to help us sustain. I want to help Nigeria, I want to help black people as a whole and I want to help the world! This is my 10 year goal.

Listen to Dice Ailes on Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, Amazon & Youtube.