Mad Ice is a Ugandan singer, songwriter, and producer based in Helsinki, Finland. Starting his music career in his early teen years, Mad Ice has built a strong devoted following of listeners in East Africa, singing primarily in Swahili, Luganda, and English. As an instrumentalist, he understands the importance of sound quality and prioritizes perfecting the details of each individual track. In this episode, we discuss how to cope with the external pressures to follow a ‘traditional’ career path, the role of language in songwriting, passion as a driving force for producing music, and systemic barriers that African musicians often face, particularly in terms of media exposure.