While it might seem incredible to some that it has been 20 years since the release of the hit hip-hop single Ice Ice Baby by rapper Rob Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice), look at that outfit … I … I really just don’t even know what to say.
To celebrate the anniversary, here is the version I have always preferred: Jim Carrey before he hit it big doing a parody for the Wayan’s Brothers variety show In Living Color:
It is interesting looking back and realizing that late the prior year when Vanilla Ice was unsigned, he had released it as the B-side (if you have to ask … ) to his cover of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music’. The B-side proved more popular and was re-released in August of 1990 as a single.
The song was a massive hit, spending more than 20 weeks on the ‘Hot 100’ charts and peaking at #1 – the first time a rap artist had ever managed that. From there, however, his flashy appearance and rather obviously manufactured ‘street cred’ caught up with him and his fall from grace was as rapid as his meteoric rise, with every corner of the music industry seeking to distance themselves from him as quickly as possible.
And as a reminder, for a while Vanilla Ice attempted to seriously claim the song wasn’t a blatant rip-off of the Queen & David Bowie song ‘Under Pressure. Here is that video:
Eventually Vanilla Ice was forced to settle out of court to avoid what had to be seen as an inevitable loss in court on infringement.
In the past twenty years, Vanilla Ice has tried to reinvent himself as a rocker, gangsta rapper, and thrash-metal act, has done some movie and TV work in the 90’s, but has been most famous in recent years as an abusive person with anger issues as he showed on The Surreal Life, where his abuse of his family was shown.
So what are your memories of Vanilla Ice, the song, his hair and outfits, and … ?