Posted in: Hip Hop by TheDragon319 on July 11, 2009 | 0 Comments
A look at one of music’s most loved and hated artists of the 1990’s and why everyone should stop hating on him. His name is Vanilla Ice.
Image via Wikipedia
Vanilla Ice a white rapper that shot to fame with his number one hit “Ice ice baby” in the early 1990’s. He was immensely popular for about 3 years then was quickly labeled a “has-been” by the music industry and by his fans. I think it has just become cool to hate on Vanilla. Yeah, he might have sold out in some people’s opinions, but the guy can rap. Even if it’s not where he comes from or that he lied about his past (he told interviewers that he had grown up in the ghetto), he can fit a whole lot of syllables into a breath and his rhymes are pretty cool (for the 90’s). Everyone loved “Ice ice baby” although hardly anyone will admit it now. We all have the “To the Extreme” album on tape or CD in our garage somewhere and can’t help not changing the station when they play it. Sure he might have sampled music from Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” song, but many artists sample music from other artists. Will Smith, another rapper, always uses other songs’ instrumentals. He used “Forget me not” for “Men in black”, Stevie Wonder’s “I wish” for “Wild wild west”, and the the Whispers’ “The beat goes on” for his “Miami”, and those are just a few off the top of my head. I must say, though, that the sound of “Ice ice baby” IS different from the “da da da da-da dum dum” from “Under Pressure”. Vanilla adds one more “da” between hook loops. There was a video of him defending his song on his “Behind the Music” special on VH1 back in the day. He might not be the coolest or most honest person, but he CAN rap. We have to give him that much- it IS him on the recordings, and that’s more than we can say for Milli Vanilli. For example, listen to “Ice is workin’ it” and pay close attention to the 2nd verse where he fits a mouthful of verses on in. The people I’ve seen try to rap it have to usually stop in the middle for a breath of air and/or screw up some of the words. He can rap with the precise timing that is needed to create the melody of his voice with his music. And I’m not talking about the hip hop music we hear today. I’m talking about rapping skill from back in the day, the “boom shakalaka” and “Whoomp! There it is” (by Tag Team) style of rapping. The type of rapping that took a whole breath and more to rap a verse. He has talent but he was too much of a puppet for the record execs that knew what kind of image they wanted to have for their rappers. Vanilla and MC Hammer both had very similar outfits, and Vanilla claims that they wore the exact same style of pants and colors on tours sometimes.
If you see Vanilla Ice now, he is a family man that still continued to tour with a heavy metal remake of “Ice ice baby” called “Too cold”. He was brought to the brink of suicide when he tried to overdose on some prescription pills. He was what people wanted and that is why he was a huge success when he was. The fans loved him. Then everyone just kind of turned on him. It’s not his fault that the music business in inconsistent and fickle. People need to back off him and realize that he broke new ground for rap and for white rappers, namely Eminem. Sure Eminem is much more successful, but he may owe some of his success, at least in the beginning to Vanilla Ice.
