The 90’s saw several popular periods of music. Hair metal was on its last feet at the beginning of the decade, with grunge taking over in the early to mid 90’s. That transitioned into
post-grunge and pop rock and then nu-metal. Against the backdrop of rock music during the decade was hip hop and straight up pop music. It was rare that an artist who was dominant in one genre would try to reinvent themselves in another genre, but that’s what happened when rapper Vanilla Ice tried to go metal.
Music Not First Choice for Vanilla Ice
Music wasn’t always the first choice for a career for rapper Vanilla Ice, who was born Robert Matthew Van Winkle in Dallas, Texas in 1967.
In his teenage years, he was a successful motocross racer, winning several championships, but a broken ankle at the age of 17 prematurely ended his career. He turned his attention to music – being a fan of hip hop and dancing.
“I remember being alone a lot as a kid because I went to so many different schools.” – Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice told the LA Times he danced to James Brown records and lip-synced to Elvis Presley as a youngster but found his calling in hip hop and started dancing with friends at local malls. “I remember being alone a lot as a kid because I went to so many different schools. I would always be the new jack and everybody’s eyes would be on me, so I eventually decided to give them something to look at. I’d fix my hair and wear things that made me stand out. And I got into rapping and then break-dancing and beat-boxing.”
He adopted the stage name Vanilla MC and it was an appearance at a Dallas disco called City Lights that changed the rapper’s life. City Lights was owned by Tommy Quon who was also managing a few acts at the time. Quon witnessed Vanilla MC at his club, taking part in the talent contest. He was so blown away that he signed the rapper to a contract the following day.
Quon suggested he change his name to Vanilla Ice and started to line up concerts that would see him open up for various rap acts including Public Enemy.
Much to Quon’s chagrin, he was unsuccessful in getting record labels to pay attention. A white rapper wasn’t exactly on their list of sought after acts. Still believing in his talent, Quon forked the money to release Vanilla Ice’s debut album Hooked, on his own independent label and got a distribution deal through Ichiban records.
“Ice Ice Baby”
They would release a single, a cover of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” with a tune called “Ice Ice Baby” as a b-side.
The song started getting airplay thanks to a DJ in Georgia who played “Ice Ice Baby” instead of the cover. It spread like wildfire from there. Quon soon spent $8,000 to record a video for “Ice Ice Baby”, only increasing the rapper’s popularity.
Vanilla Ice Feud with MC Hammer
SBK Records took notice and signed Vanilla Ice. They re-released Hooked with a new name, To The Extreme and he soon started opening for MC Hammer. It was that tour that saw tension between the rappers with Vanilla Ice knocking MC Hammer from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.
Quon told the LA Times about the feud with MC Hammer, “By the end, we were selling as many t-shirts as Hammer at the shows and I think that bothered them. They didn’t want to acknowledge what was happening.”
“Ice Ice Baby” Makes History
“Ice Ice Baby” would become the first No.1 hip hop single to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts. To The Extreme became a global phenomenon, selling over 15M copies worldwide and spending a whopping 4 months at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album charts.
Despite his newfound success, there was a growing backlash against the rapper. A lot of critics and musicians criticized Vanilla Ice for cultural appropriation. In addition, “Ice Ice Baby” drew the attention of Queen who claimed the rapper stole the bass line from “Under Pressure” without asking for permission or fairly compensating the band.
For the next several years, Vanilla Ice toured relentlessly, and by 1993, he needed a break. He recorded his follow up album, Mind Blowin, which came out in 1994, but his 15 minutes of fame seemed to have faded. His follow up record only moved 42,000 copies and failed to chart.
Vanilla Ice Expresses Regret
The rapper later expressed regret over taking every opportunity that was offered to him, telling the LA Times in 1998, “My first record made me millions of dollars, and I didn’t spend it, either. I had a boat in my backyard, a $600K car. All that stuff, now I’m set for life which enables me to do what I want.
The first time around, I played a puppet role for the record label. I was 19 years old and doing a full on hip hop thing. Playing for black audiences, opening for Ice-T. The record label told me they wanted me to take it to the pop market, and at first I refused. But at that time, I was just barely surviving. I was three payments behind on my car and they handed me a check for 1.5 with my name already on it, and I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ So I did it. Then, it was all about money. I was just like Jerry Maguire, ‘Show me the money.'”
“I overdosed one night and woke up the next day and found God.” – Vanilla Ice
Following the failure of his second record, Vanilla Ice went into a deep depression and turned to drugs to cope, but he found religion. He told MTV in 1998, “God has blessed me in more ways than one. I found God when I found myself on the floor with friends dumping cold water on me. I overdosed one night and woke up the next day and found God.”
By the mid 90’s, the rapper was picking up the pieces of his life and started getting into real estate, investing, racing jet skis and getting back into motocross and for a short period of time, had a grunge outfit named Pickin Scabz.
“I wanted to express myself in a very intense way, and there was no way that was going to happen with a drum machine.” – Vanilla Ice
The rapper found a new home with Republic Records. The label’s head, Monte Lipman, told the rapper about a producer named Ross Robinson. Vanilla Ice told the Iowa State Daily in 1998, “I wanted to express myself in a very intense way, and there was no way that was going to happen with a drum machine. Basically, I’m bored with the drum machines and samples and stuff. With a band, they can build that energy around me.”
The rapper invited the prospective producer to his home, “Ross walks in and sees my motocross trophy and he’s a motocross racer himself. We were clicking right off the bat. We had something in common. He was like, ‘Yeah man, I’d really love to do your record.’ I flew to LA right away and within a month and a half we had the album finished and completed.”
Robinson, at the time, was one of the hottest producers in rock n’ roll, working with a variety of nu-metal acts but It was a risky move for the producer. He told the New York Times, “People kept saying to me, ‘It might hurt your name, it might hurt your reputation.’ I said, ‘I’m doing it then.’ It’s the most punk rock thing you could do.”
“It wasn’t intended to be so dark.” – Vanilla Ice
Robinson was known for taking people’s hardships and pain and turning it into music, something the producer thought he could do with the rapper. For Vanilla Ice, it was difficult to dig deep and open up about his demons.
He recalled to CNN, “It wasn’t intended to be so dark. I opened up to Ross and I told him a lot of things that happened to me in the past. It was like, really deep conversation, and he was like, ‘You should write about that.’ And I was like, ‘Dude!’ I didn’t want people to judge me for that but he was right. The record was like total therapy. I had to tap into these moments in my life, I’m free now.”
Once news broke that Robinson would be working with Vanilla Ice on a nu-metal style album, many were left scratching their heads. There were rumors that members of Korn and Lenny Kravitz, who was the godfather to Vanilla Ice’s daughter would appear on the album, but both rumors turned out to be false. Instead, Jimmy Pop of the Bloodhound Gang would show up on the record.
Robinson assembled a backing band that was made up of drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Sonny Mayo and Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland’s brother, Scott of Big Dumb Face Fame on keyboards and future Puddle Of Mudd bassist Doug Ardito.
“Everything had to be 110% for that guy, and I love him for that.” – Shannon Larkin
Larkin would claim to Modern Drummer magazine in 2006 that he was, “Proud of that one. Producer Ross Robinson is very demanding when it comes to drums in the studio. Everything had to be 110% for that guy, and I love him for that.”
Ahead of the album being released, Vanilla Ice was touring across the United States and was met with a lot of success. Josh Hunt of Avalanche Productions who promoted the tour across the Midwest told MTV, “We just stumbled into it and it just felt right. The guy sold, what, 7 million records? All the shows have been sold out, people are definitely interested.”
“A lot of young girls still come out to the shows, but they probably wished I’d made another pop record because this may be a little too hard for them.” – Vanilla Ice
So what type of people were showing up to Vanilla Ice’s concerts in 1998? Well he would tell the LA Times, “Not the crowd I played before. A lot of young girls still come out to the shows, but they probably wished I’d made another pop record because this may be a little too hard for them. Now my crowd is the body-piercing and tattoo crowd. A lot of people are buying the new record and showing up to the shows, and it’s good to see so many enjoying the music.”
By early 1998, Vanilla Ice told Rolling Stone online that his upcoming album would be a “high-energy, hip-hop effort”, but months later his label would refer to it as “aggressive rock”.
In the run up to the album’s release, there was a lot of news reporting claiming that the album would blend the styles of Vanilla Ice’s rapping and nu-metal act Korn. The album titled Hard to Swallow would come out on October 20, 1998.
“Stupid, exploitative, derivative rap metal by the man who once did nearly irreparable damage to hip hop.” – New Times magazine
Hard to Swallow was a commercial flop, not charting in any countries. The album received stinging reviews from Rolling Stone stating, “Nothing can redeem Ice’s whack boasting” while New Times magazine called it “stupid, exploitative, derivative rap metal by the man who once did nearly irreparable damage to hip hop.”
Since its release, the album has made many ‘worst of’ lists. Shortly after the album’s release, Vanilla Ice lost his recording contract and he wouldn’t release his follow up record until 3 years later in 2001.
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