It’s hard to miss William Trice. His thin dreads catch the light, reflecting the rainbow of colors he has dyed them. A thick African pendant necklace around his neck jostles and shines, an accent piece charged by his energy and movement. He’s strong in stature but gentle in speech—even when we land on the topic of his carnivorous tattoos.
“I’ve always been fascinated with lions,” he says, lifting his sleeves to uncover his forearms. “Lion energy is really strong with me, even though I’m not a Leo.”
The 43-year-old, who goes by the stage name Trice Be Phantom Magnetiq, performs in variety show Miss Behave’s Mavericks three nights a week at Downtown bar Cheapshot. Amid that production’s ribaldry and circus tricks, he can hold the crowd captive with just his voice.
“This is a maaaan’s world,” he bellows as he arrives, adorned in royal robes. Then, in the space of a few moments, his instrument transforms from James Brown’s, to Luciano Pavarotti’s, to that of a reggae singer. “Pavarotti is my favorite operatic singer … the reason I began to sing opera,” he explains.
At Cheapshot, Trice’s jazzy Donny Hathaway arrangement of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” has garnered praise. It’s the second time Trice has gained traction with Gaye—his remix (with Travis Emmons and Brett Rubin) of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” charted on the EDM platform Beatport in 2021.
This is Trice’s “Cosmiq Reggae Soul Opera,” a place where hip-hop and reggae meet, opera and soul embrace and African folk and house music dance. The vocalist began fusing styles with The UpRite Lions, a North Carolina band in which he played with his brothers before moving to Las Vegas in 2013. His studies of the music of the African diaspora at Morehouse College helped him see what those seemingly disparate genres—and many others—had in common. “Gospel, jazz, rock ’n’ roll all have roots in that folk music, that combination of African musical traditions, notes, chords, scales and European tradition,” he explains.
Trice says he learned to tap into his own “raw essence” and voice power by participating in local drum circles, which led him to attend Burning Man, and to discover his love for house music. “It’s very connected to disco, which is connected to funk,” he says. “Again, there’s that heritage. House music is very rooted.”
Beyond Mavericks, Trice performs reggae and soul with his band Aslan Sol and works on solo projects. “Sunshine,” his groove-laden collab with local DJ JackEL, is a refined Trice Be original. “I’ll never go away/Baby I’m here to stay/Shining light in rays/Sending love in waves,” he sings over a chill-tempo beat. Trice wrote those lyrics about his late sister, Ivra, who died in 2020; he says the words took on “a whole other meaning” after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police later that year.
Ivra’s voice is still present on “Dusk Til Dawn,” the first single off Be Ezy, Be Well, Beloved,the EP Trice has been working on with producer Olmeca. He’s hopeful they can finish it by December.
“I love music, I love to share,” he says, “And when people say, ‘Your voice is amazing; I’m sure you hear that all the time,’ every time it’s brand new. That reflection is fuel for me. Not because it feeds my ego, but because it confirms I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
TRICE BE PHANTOM MAGNETIQ soundcloud.com/phantommagnetiq, youtu.be/sGqVMUwa0Yk
MISS BEHAVE'S MAVERICKS Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. (& 9:30 p.m. Saturday), $25-$35. Cheapshot, cheapshotdtlv.com.
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