Van Winkle signed a contract with Ichiban Records in 1989, and released his debut album, Hooked. Upon seeing Van Winkle's performance, Quon saw commercial potential in his rapping and dancing skills, and offered him a contract with his management company, Ultrax. In 1987, Van Winkle met Tommy Quon at his Dallas night club City Lights. Between the ages of 13 and 14, Van Winkle practiced breakdancing, which led to his black friends calling him "Vanilla Ice." Van Winkle wrote "Ice Ice Baby" at the age of 16, basing its lyrics upon his experiences in South Florida. ![]() It might even be terrible.Vanilla Ice, real name Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967, not to be confused with Rip Van Winkle), is a rapper born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Texas and South Florida, who is best known for his 1989 hit "Ice Ice Baby", which samples the main riff from Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure". And there isn’t a rapper around who hasn’t recorded at least one self-aggrandising track. At the same time, it’s a very modern rap track: the lyrics are all about how bad-ass, how dangerous, and how popular with the ladies Ice is. On the one hand, it seems to have set hip-hop back by a good few years. I’m still not sure how to finish and move on from ‘Ice Ice Baby’. ![]() And yet, here he stands, with only the 2 nd hip-hop #1 in British chart history (and certainly the most credible of the two so far, after ‘Turtle Power’.) He’s had a troubled time of it, with firearms charges, burglary, domestic abuse and illegal drag-racing on his rap sheet. The follow-up, a cover of ‘Play That Funky Music’, made #10 and since then he’s never bothered the Top 20. Van Winkle never matched the heights of his debut single. He’s released live versions and anniversary remixes, as well as a nu-metal version (which is better than it has any right to be…) Perhaps it was a victim of its own success, or perhaps the controversy over the ‘sample’ took the gloss off it? Vanilla Ice – whose real name is the gloriously un-gangsta Robert Van Winkle – seems simultaneously annoyed by this albatross around his neck, and unwilling to let it die. When exactly the tide turned, I’m not sure. But, at the time, was it taken seriously? It seems that it was, getting good reviews in Billboard, the NME, and Entertainment Weekly. Nowadays, for sure, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ is a punchline, bound to feature on a ‘Worst Moments of the ‘90s’ clipshow on Channel 5. Queen and David Bowie weren’t terribly convinced – they settled out of court and were given co-writing credits. ![]() And I say that it sounds ‘like’ ‘Under Pressure’, because Vanilla Ice claimed that it wasn’t a sample, and that he’d added an extra note. Away from his look at me lyrics ( If my rhyme was a drug, I’d sell it by the gram…) I’d say the moody synths and the riff that sounds suspiciously like a #1 from ten years earlier could easily form the basis of a hit single in 2023. Yet at the same time, Vanilla Ice is the worst thing about this record. And C) As for Vanilla Ice looking like a moron… Well, show me any rapper that you wouldn’t look at in the street and think seemed a bit eccentric. B) Early hip hop records do sound dated, very focused on rhyme and meter. This is far from the first ridiculous chart-topper. A) Being ridiculous isn’t necessarily a disadvantage for a record that wants to be a hit. Yes, Vanilla Ice comes across as a weapons-grade moron. Ice Ice Baby, by Vanilla Ice (his 1 st and only #1)Ĥ weeks, from 25 th November – 23 rd December 1990Īnd I get the hate.
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