Ice Ice Baby is 30
October 9, 2020 1:53 PM Subscribe
This is way more interesting than I would have guessed before reading it. Also, Ice Ice Baby came out in 1990? I would have sworn that we were dancing to that in college, and I graduated in 1989.
My friends and I would sing this the entire walk home from 4th/5th grade when this first came out. Like 9 tiny dudes just singing the same song over for 15 mins every day for weeks.
Also, I'm not sure which song came first, but Can't Touch This by MC Hammer also came out in 90, and I remember my dad ripping on me for just loving these songs when both were practically direct rip offs of earlier huge hits (Under Pressure by Queen/Bowie and Super-freak by Rick James). Maybe "rip" is too strong, but I do remember getting defensive when he tried to explain that these songs existed because of the previous songs, heh.
Flood by They Might Giants also came out in 90, which my dad played so much that my I sisters and I started playing that record just constantly as well. That was a good year for tunes in my household.
posted by sideshow at 2:23 PM on October 9, 2020 [7 favorites]
Also, I'm not sure which song came first, but Can't Touch This by MC Hammer also came out in 90, and I remember my dad ripping on me for just loving these songs when both were practically direct rip offs of earlier huge hits (Under Pressure by Queen/Bowie and Super-freak by Rick James). Maybe "rip" is too strong, but I do remember getting defensive when he tried to explain that these songs existed because of the previous songs, heh.
Flood by They Might Giants also came out in 90, which my dad played so much that my I sisters and I started playing that record just constantly as well. That was a good year for tunes in my household.
posted by sideshow at 2:23 PM on October 9, 2020 [7 favorites]
That was interesting. I wanted to hear a bit more about his ":second act" as they call it which you would think would be way better-documented. I've seen his home improvement show and it's not bad. Like... he can use tools (I say that in the same way some of the people in the article were saying "He can DANCE") and the thing about becoming a ranked Jet-ski racer? I feel like this was an article about Ice the hiphop artist and I was hoping a bit more about Bobby Van Winkle, but it was interesting just the same.
posted by jessamyn at 2:31 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jessamyn at 2:31 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Christmas Eve 2011 I was in Miami, in a rental convertible, turning onto the A1A......when Ice Ice Baby come on the radio. Greatest 4 minutes ever. Mrs. Inflatablekiwi still shakes her head that I know *all* the lyrics.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:46 PM on October 9, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:46 PM on October 9, 2020 [10 favorites]
There is no denying that he achieved success with that song. The only thing Vanilla needs to do is honestly and with humility admit that he took the beat from a Queen/Bowie song. Because this is ridiculous, regardless of him spending $4m to buy the song to avoid a lawsuit.
posted by linux at 2:48 PM on October 9, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by linux at 2:48 PM on October 9, 2020 [5 favorites]
I wanted to hear a bit more about his ":second act" as they call it which you would think would be way better-documented.
I had the same reaction. There's enough WTF going on in just one of the final paragraphs to fill a book:
There were brushes with the law: a 2008 arrest after his wife said he kicked and hit her (the charges were later dropped after she recanted). He copped to a plea deal in 2015 related to charges of residential burglary and grand theft after police say he took furniture, a pool heater, and bicycles from a Florida home that he presumed was vacant. He became a Juggalo and released an album on ICP’s label, starred in an Adam Sandler movie, played Captain Hook in a British production of Peter Pan, and nearly was involved in a Fourth of July concert in Texas that was called off because of COVID-19 concerns. This is all in addition to the decade-long run of The Vanilla Ice Project.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:00 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
I had the same reaction. There's enough WTF going on in just one of the final paragraphs to fill a book:
There were brushes with the law: a 2008 arrest after his wife said he kicked and hit her (the charges were later dropped after she recanted). He copped to a plea deal in 2015 related to charges of residential burglary and grand theft after police say he took furniture, a pool heater, and bicycles from a Florida home that he presumed was vacant. He became a Juggalo and released an album on ICP’s label, starred in an Adam Sandler movie, played Captain Hook in a British production of Peter Pan, and nearly was involved in a Fourth of July concert in Texas that was called off because of COVID-19 concerns. This is all in addition to the decade-long run of The Vanilla Ice Project.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:00 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
I want to hear more about the last part of his first act. Like, who thought that this or this, for Christ's sake, was a good idea?
posted by box at 3:26 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by box at 3:26 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
box, I *knew* one of your links would be the metal version of Ice Ice Baby. And on that first song, isn't he basically trying to be Everlast?
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 3:36 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 3:36 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
He copped to a plea deal in 2015 related to charges of residential burglary and grand theft after police say he took furniture, a pool heater, and bicycles from a Florida home that he presumed was vacant.
All this was part of the tv show Vanilla Ice Project, in which he and his crew renovate Florida mansions. They stole a bunch of stuff from a near-by home.
nearly was involved in a Fourth of July concert in Texas that was called off because of COVID-19 concerns
He still regularly plays shows. I saw him do a nu-metal version of Ice Ice Baby in 1997 (and maybe the other songs Box linked to) in Florida during spring break. It was about the same as Korn (saying as someone not a fan of that type of music). He played a classic rap (no nu-metal tracks) show in 2017 at a club that lead to a noise ordnance being passed in my neighborhood.
posted by The_Vegetables at 3:36 PM on October 9, 2020
All this was part of the tv show Vanilla Ice Project, in which he and his crew renovate Florida mansions. They stole a bunch of stuff from a near-by home.
nearly was involved in a Fourth of July concert in Texas that was called off because of COVID-19 concerns
He still regularly plays shows. I saw him do a nu-metal version of Ice Ice Baby in 1997 (and maybe the other songs Box linked to) in Florida during spring break. It was about the same as Korn (saying as someone not a fan of that type of music). He played a classic rap (no nu-metal tracks) show in 2017 at a club that lead to a noise ordnance being passed in my neighborhood.
posted by The_Vegetables at 3:36 PM on October 9, 2020
By the way, if you haven't seen his film Cool as Ice, I highly recommend it (as in, you should be really high when you watch it). It's a total mess because it tries to be a goofy, kid-friendly comedy and also present Ice as an edgy bad-boy ready to take on the world. This scene is so g-d corny -- I was expecting a rapping grandma to come out at some point. (The Rifftrax of Cool as Ice is pretty hilarious, btw)
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:55 PM on October 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:55 PM on October 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
Because this is ridiculous yt , regardless of him spending $4m to buy the song to avoid a lawsuit.
Unless I misunderstand, he also declares at the beginning of the clip that he was sixteen when the song became a hit, which is... not something that seems likely or supported by biographical details.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:59 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Unless I misunderstand, he also declares at the beginning of the clip that he was sixteen when the song became a hit, which is... not something that seems likely or supported by biographical details.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:59 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
The claim, I believe is that he wrote it -- or some early version of the lyric, since it wouldn't have had the Bowie/Queen hook -- when he was sixteen.
posted by slkinsey at 4:34 PM on October 9, 2020
posted by slkinsey at 4:34 PM on October 9, 2020
I was such a Queen fan at the time to immediately ignore him. Frankly still don't care.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:57 PM on October 9, 2020
posted by zengargoyle at 4:57 PM on October 9, 2020
I want to hear more about the last part of his first act. Like, who thought that this or this, for Christ's sake, was a good idea?
Like 95% of the A&R guys at UMG at the time. When you sign a deal with major label, those two songs and videos are exactly what happens.
Just like if it wasn't COVID-19 times, there'd be like 15 female duos coming out with videos like W.A.P. by the end of the year.
posted by sideshow at 5:01 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Like 95% of the A&R guys at UMG at the time. When you sign a deal with major label, those two songs and videos are exactly what happens.
Just like if it wasn't COVID-19 times, there'd be like 15 female duos coming out with videos like W.A.P. by the end of the year.
posted by sideshow at 5:01 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
At the time, I thought he was dumbing down real hip-hop to appeal to white suburban teenagers (I mean, I still think that, but it’s also what I thought at the time).
Seeing as I was myself a white suburban teenager when Ice broke out, I’m not sure why that rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. A co-sign from someone like Chuck D would’ve made a big difference. It may be apocryphal, but I remember rumors of Chuck saying ‘If there’s going to be a rap Elvis, I want a piece of him.’ The Young Black Teenagers really, really didn’t work.The Bomb Squad could work magic with Ice Cube, but they couldn’t polish that turd.
I feel like the article makes some false equivalencies between Ice and 3rd Bass, who made a lot more effort to be respectful about being white people making music in a genre invented by Black people (see for example MC Serch putting on a young Nas, or a line from ‘Pop Goes the Weasel,’ a song that’s at least partially parody (and the ‘Sledgehammer’ sample flip is all parody), ‘And I would never steal a chant from a Black Greek fraternity’). Whether that feeling comes from ideas about regionalism and authenticity that I no longer hold is... a distinct possibility.
posted by box at 5:13 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Seeing as I was myself a white suburban teenager when Ice broke out, I’m not sure why that rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. A co-sign from someone like Chuck D would’ve made a big difference. It may be apocryphal, but I remember rumors of Chuck saying ‘If there’s going to be a rap Elvis, I want a piece of him.’ The Young Black Teenagers really, really didn’t work.The Bomb Squad could work magic with Ice Cube, but they couldn’t polish that turd.
I feel like the article makes some false equivalencies between Ice and 3rd Bass, who made a lot more effort to be respectful about being white people making music in a genre invented by Black people (see for example MC Serch putting on a young Nas, or a line from ‘Pop Goes the Weasel,’ a song that’s at least partially parody (and the ‘Sledgehammer’ sample flip is all parody), ‘And I would never steal a chant from a Black Greek fraternity’). Whether that feeling comes from ideas about regionalism and authenticity that I no longer hold is... a distinct possibility.
posted by box at 5:13 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
I enjoy them, don't get me wrong, but isn't there a "remember Vanilla Ice" longform piece like this every 2-3 years? I feel like I've read several linked from metafilter alone.
posted by sy at 5:17 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by sy at 5:17 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
For reasons too convoluted to explain a few years ago Vanilla Ice let a landscape architect friend of mine be one of his backup dancers at a live show. The photos he took show a man ecstatic, fulfilling a dream of his teenage years he didn’t think he’d be realizing in his 30s but dammit when opportunity knocks you open the door.
Also it turns out he and Vanilla Ice had a shared passion for interior design and had some lovely conversations on the topic.
posted by lepus at 5:30 PM on October 9, 2020 [8 favorites]
Also it turns out he and Vanilla Ice had a shared passion for interior design and had some lovely conversations on the topic.
posted by lepus at 5:30 PM on October 9, 2020 [8 favorites]
Just leaving this here: Nardwuar vs. Vanilla Ice, in which he asks him about Vanilla Ice vs. Todd Bridges.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:43 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:43 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
I actually saw a couple episodes of that Surreal Life show they mention. I remember that during his first appearance on the show, he introduced himself by his real name and described himself as being "simple as a pimple".
Somehow that....seemed to fit.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:06 PM on October 9, 2020
Somehow that....seemed to fit.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:06 PM on October 9, 2020
The claim, I believe is that he wrote it -- or some early version of the lyric, since it wouldn't have had the Bowie/Queen hook -- when he was sixteen.
I was going of the “this issue ridiculous” link in linux’s comment above. In a radio interview he mentions his age of sixteen and Opie or perhaps Anthony asks “You were sixteen when that came out?” and he confirms, “Sixteen.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:51 PM on October 9, 2020
I was going of the “this issue ridiculous” link in linux’s comment above. In a radio interview he mentions his age of sixteen and Opie or perhaps Anthony asks “You were sixteen when that came out?” and he confirms, “Sixteen.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:51 PM on October 9, 2020
By the way, if you haven't seen his film Cool as Ice, I highly recommend it…Janusz Kaminski, who would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, was director of photography on Cool as Ice and it shows. (Full disclosure: I've never seen the film, but I have watched the music video for John Maus' Bennington, which is just the song over footage from Cool as Ice, a number of times.)
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 8:05 PM on October 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
TIL that Henry Rollins played Vanilla Ice in someone's video dissing Ice.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:14 PM on October 9, 2020
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:14 PM on October 9, 2020
Many more charming, appalling and larger-than-life details about Rob VanWinkle's life in Florida, his real estate adventures, and iterations of his career may be found here.
posted by carmicha at 3:45 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by carmicha at 3:45 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Great article; my partner and I were discussing how appropriative Mr Van Winkle was only they other night. That Jim Carey piss take video is utterly savage.
posted by Faff at 4:51 AM on October 10, 2020
posted by Faff at 4:51 AM on October 10, 2020
Confession: I’m always disappointed when Ice Ice Baby starts and I realize a few seconds in that it’s actually Under Pressure.
It’s taken a little less than 30 years for me to stop caring what people think about my trash musical tastes.
Word to your mother.
posted by kimberussell at 6:29 AM on October 10, 2020 [8 favorites]
It’s taken a little less than 30 years for me to stop caring what people think about my trash musical tastes.
Word to your mother.
posted by kimberussell at 6:29 AM on October 10, 2020 [8 favorites]
One strange, drunken night many years ago I met Vanilla Ice as a lady friend I was with was (pretend?) hitting on him either before or after a show he was performing that night that we had free tickets to. He was surprisingly nice, and totally handled the fact that we were making fun of him to his face. He did not care at all; any dumb joke you made at his expense he had obviously heard hundreds of times already.
Anyway, yeah. I was like 12 when his song was a big hit. So I was probably in my mid 20s when I met him. And have had a strange, begrudging respect for him since because of the fact that he was actually a genuinely cool guy when I met him.
Anyway, that's my Vanilla Ice story. Thanks for listening.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 7:20 AM on October 10, 2020 [4 favorites]
Anyway, yeah. I was like 12 when his song was a big hit. So I was probably in my mid 20s when I met him. And have had a strange, begrudging respect for him since because of the fact that he was actually a genuinely cool guy when I met him.
Anyway, that's my Vanilla Ice story. Thanks for listening.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 7:20 AM on October 10, 2020 [4 favorites]
director of photography on Cool as Ice and it shows
Yeah, it is quite visually striking, despite the terrible story and corny performances.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:03 PM on October 10, 2020
Yeah, it is quite visually striking, despite the terrible story and corny performances.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:03 PM on October 10, 2020
One day in May 2016 I was walking along Bloor Street (if you're not familiar with Toronto, Bloor is one of Toronto's main thoroughfares) and witnessed a guy driving along in a convertible with the top down and "Ice, Ice Baby" on blast. All the people on the street who were old enough to know the song were looking at the guy with a "Seriously?!" look. The two guys walking just ahead of me, who were around my age, looked at each other, laughed, and started jiving to the beat. All I could think was that the convertible driver had more confidence than I'd ever have.
posted by orange swan at 2:05 PM on October 10, 2020
posted by orange swan at 2:05 PM on October 10, 2020
COD, thank you for linking to this. I read, watched, and listened with great interest, and in particular the In Living Color video (Jim Carrey's impersonation) was a rockin' piece I had not previously witnessed.
carmicha: thank you for that money.com link!
posted by brainwane at 4:51 PM on October 10, 2020
carmicha: thank you for that money.com link!
Vanilla Ice Goes AmishIf any of you have watched this I would like to know your assessment and memories.
He hasn’t released a studio album since 2011’s W.T.F. (Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus)I unironically love that album title.
posted by brainwane at 4:51 PM on October 10, 2020
The last song on To the Extreme is the utterly ridiculous/transcendent beat-boxing track"Havin' a Roni. When I was in a high school, a few of the diners around Houston where my friends and I would/could hang-out had jukeboxes with To the Extreme. Whenever we went (or found a new one), we'd pool our resources and put in $5-10 just on repeats of that track (at 25c a play), and see how long it took before someone would complain and/or just unplug the machine. Usually by the 7th or 8th time they heard "skiddlee om yom ba doo," people would be pretty fucking enraged, and it rarely got beyond a baker's dozen. More than one place eventually removed the album.
Good times.
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:36 PM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Good times.
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:36 PM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
When Kurt Cobain was howling about "don't know what it means," he may have had "Havin' a Roni" in mind. Regardless this all just reminded me how much the backlash to Vanilla Ice and Co. shaped my junior high years. He can spend the rest of his life helping the needy and I'm still gonna have a vague "fuck this poseur" sitting in the back of my head.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:44 PM on October 10, 2020
posted by aspersioncast at 8:44 PM on October 10, 2020
I was 20 when Ice, Ice, Baby came out. All the frat boys near my off-campus apartment LOVED it. They'd never really blasted rap out of their houses AC/DC-style as the soundtrack to their weekly keggers, except for "Fight For Your Right to Party". The first time I saw the video, I said to my roommate, "Oh, look, the labels found an Elvis for rap." She said, "Well, at least there's actual black people in the video with him this time around." I'm sure that, like Elvis, Rob Van Winkle was just doing music and dancing that he loved. But black kids knew exactly what the labels were doing. I thought the song was boring. I was more of a De La Soul fan in those days.
3rd Bass's take-off was very similar in repeating that Sledgehammer bit, yes, but they also got in The Who's "Eminence Front", which, if you know the song, the lyric "It's a put-on!" makes this usage clever. They also used Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin'", and again, clever if you know the song.
Part of me is disappointed that Chuck D wanted to sign him, but I might understand why he did. Probably wanted to see a black man be Col. Tom Parker for a change.
posted by droplet at 9:42 PM on October 10, 2020
3rd Bass's take-off was very similar in repeating that Sledgehammer bit, yes, but they also got in The Who's "Eminence Front", which, if you know the song, the lyric "It's a put-on!" makes this usage clever. They also used Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin'", and again, clever if you know the song.
Part of me is disappointed that Chuck D wanted to sign him, but I might understand why he did. Probably wanted to see a black man be Col. Tom Parker for a change.
posted by droplet at 9:42 PM on October 10, 2020
My Twitter feed informs me that Malcolm Nance, among others, are trying to make #VanillaIsis trend as a descriptor for white supremacist domestic terrorists. Poor Rob VanWinkle.
posted by carmicha at 10:35 PM on October 10, 2020
posted by carmicha at 10:35 PM on October 10, 2020
Confession: I’m always disappointed when Ice Ice Baby starts and I realize a few seconds in that it’s actually Under Pressure.
That's cuz Under Pressure is not a very good song. The ending part Freddy Mercury sings is terrible.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:13 AM on October 12, 2020
That's cuz Under Pressure is not a very good song. The ending part Freddy Mercury sings is terrible.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:13 AM on October 12, 2020
I think Ice was a victim of his times. He was packaged as a glittery pop sensation, the white MC Hammer, as opposed to an actual "MC" -- which he very well may have had the chops to be. When that flamed out, there was the attempt to smush him into the rap-rock nu-metal scene -- one of Rock's dying gasps as The American Popular Music genre -- and thank god that musical fad mostly died out.* Had Eminem been coming up at the same time, he probably would have been marketed the same way and similarly been a flash-in-the-pan, instead of one of the best selling artists of the last 20 years. But, he had the benefit of coming up a few years later, when nu-metal was fading away and being replaced by the post-rock and indie sounds of The Strokes et alia, and rap had solidified its dominance.
(Eminem is also a significantly more talented MC than Ice ever could have been, but the latter did not entirely lack ability)
*This isn't my original thesis, but the whole rap-rock scene seems like it was an industry-wide conspiracy to keep white teens listening to white musicians by appropriating (in tried-and-true white music industry fashion) aspects of popular black music; they took the "aggressiveness" of rap, paired it with shitty bro-metal, and from this marriage we got a whole bunch of shit. I wouldn't be surprised if there are reams of internal memos to this effect.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:47 PM on October 12, 2020
(Eminem is also a significantly more talented MC than Ice ever could have been, but the latter did not entirely lack ability)
*This isn't my original thesis, but the whole rap-rock scene seems like it was an industry-wide conspiracy to keep white teens listening to white musicians by appropriating (in tried-and-true white music industry fashion) aspects of popular black music; they took the "aggressiveness" of rap, paired it with shitty bro-metal, and from this marriage we got a whole bunch of shit. I wouldn't be surprised if there are reams of internal memos to this effect.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:47 PM on October 12, 2020
But the latter did not entirely lack ability
He kinda did. He could dance and look cute, but he wasn’t making Rakim and Big Daddy Kane update their resumés. And, though it was years later, Eminem was no Vanilla Ice, and vice versa.
posted by box at 5:07 PM on October 12, 2020
He kinda did. He could dance and look cute, but he wasn’t making Rakim and Big Daddy Kane update their resumés. And, though it was years later, Eminem was no Vanilla Ice, and vice versa.
posted by box at 5:07 PM on October 12, 2020
Well, we can split the difference.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:44 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:44 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
That's cuz Under Pressure is not a very good song. The ending part Freddy Mercury sings is terrible.
YOU TAKE THAT BACK
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:51 PM on October 12, 2020
YOU TAKE THAT BACK
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:51 PM on October 12, 2020
Say what you will about Vanilla Ice, but if Ice Ice Baby were such a bad song, then how come an entire generation remembers every. damn. word?
posted by panama joe at 5:56 AM on October 14, 2020
posted by panama joe at 5:56 AM on October 14, 2020
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