The Vanilla Icing on the cake
Though white rapper Vanilla Ice (also known as Robert Van Winkle) is considered to be a one hit wonder with ‘Ice Ice Baby’, the 21 years that have past since its release has made people forget that he was once considered more than just a novelty act. The song’s seen as a bit of a joke nowadays, but ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was huger than what people remember or give credit for.
Vanilla Ice stealing someone else's Grammys circa 2011.
Like any artist, he released other singles. Probably the most well known of Ice’s other songs was for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II soundtrack, entitled ‘Ninja Rap’, a title he obviously put a lot of thought into.
Ice also made a love ballad! I am not kidding. It really is such a romantic song, will thaw the coldest hearts out there. It is the thoughtfully titled ‘I Love You’ (further proof he doesn’t put much thought into naming his songs).
Vanilla Ice was so big in the early 1990s that he even had his very own movie! What was it called? Cool As Ice. Seriously. I have not seen it, so I can’t fairly judge it, but it seems like an early ’90s version of Footloose, and unsurprisingly is considered one of the worst movies ever made.
But like every other celebrity who ever became washed up, Vanilla Ice wanted to get back into the spotlight ASAP. How did he try to do this? Come up with a brand new song that will rock the world? No. He did a heavy metal cover of his own hit ‘Ice Ice Baby’! Again, I am not kidding. I thought he was unoriginal when titling his songs; this just takes it to a whole new level/low. Needless to say, this didn’t give Ice the comeback he desired. (To be honest, I actually like this version; the guitar riff kills it!)
After a while, Vanilla Ice saw the error in his ways and had to face the music about his music. He bared his soul to the world when he made this apology regarding the daggy dancing and fashion trends it caused (not for the song itself however!) that set white rappers back a decade until Eminem came along.
A little known fact about Vanilla Ice is that he dated Madonna back around the time he was famous. He featured in her sex book Sex (like Ice, Madonna didn’t put any thought into titling things). All the perverts old enough to remember this book and have “read” it (i.e. wanked over the explicit photos in it), you now know why the guy in the photo where Madonna is copping it doggy style looks familiar.
This pic makes Madonna's song 'Like A Virgin' redundant.
Matt Wilson
