Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice
Robert Matthew Van Winkle, known by his stage name, Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, actor and television host. Born in South Dallas, and raised in Texas and South Florida, Ice released his debut album, Hooked, in 1989 on Ichiban Records, before signing a contract with SBK Records, a record label of the EMI Group which released a reformatted version of the album under the title To the Extreme. Ice's 1990 single "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRapper
Date of Birth31 October 1967
CityDallas, TX
CountryUnited States of America
"Ice" came in when my friends would say "cold as ice" - if you could rap and battle people you'd say "Dude, that was ice cold." It had nothing to do with jewelry. Back then, it was like "Your cold, dawg." "Vanilla Ice - that's cold."
Not everyone agrees on music. Some people like rap, some like country - it's all an opinion. F the critics.
I'm to trying to say I'm something I'm not. Black people understand that. I'm just doing my raps, my way. Rap is black. I recognize that and respect that. I'm just a white guy trying to rap, and I got lucky.
Rap is from the streets and I'm from the streets. That's why a lot of people accept me.
It doesn't sound anything like 'Under Pressure.'
People don't understand it's really a hard thing, because I was here in the early '90s and... basically I was gone from over here. I've been doing my thing over in the States, but it's more underground than pop-ish, mainstream-ish, radio-friendly stuff, it's more underground. People have no clue what the hell Vanilla Ice has been up to.
I was playing a record company whore back in the days, a puppet. Everything was staged. I wasn't really designed to be this novelty act; I was turned into one. When I first came out, I was opening for Ice-T, EPMD, and Public Enemy. All of my audience was black.
I don't hate on any artist actually, not on boy bands, on nothing, it's just music and if you enjoy it then enjoy it. I just have my own opinion of what I like and so should everybody else. I don't try and make everybody else believe in my opinion, everybody's born differently you know, God created us all different.
One thing I didn't understand in life was that I had $100,000,000 in the bank and I couldn't buy happiness. I had everything: mansions, yachts, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, but I was depressed. I didn't know where I fitted in. But then I found family and friends and I learned the value of life.
Nobody knew the direction of the album until the very end. It was really amazing because we had no idea what we were going to come up with.
With radio limitations as far as length of songs and content, sometimes if you are being conscious of that then that effects the outcome of a song.
To me, a critic is some loser who has no idea... someone with an opinion. We all have opinions. No offense, but what makes them dictate what is cool and what is not.
I had a pretty modest upbringing; it was no pleasure cruise. I don't think I would be as happy today if I hadn't been through that. It was tough; I made some bad choices myself.
I know this will blow your mind, but most people would probably never ever get it, but I listen to classical music when nobody else is around. It calms me down and I can get into this, like, deep thinking mode, you know, because there's really no lyrics to it, so you're not following something that - that you're listening to a story.