With
his hit single "Ice Ice Baby" and its accompanying
album, To the Extreme, Vanilla Ice became the second White rapper
to top the charts. Unlike the Beastie Boys, he didn't have any
street credibility, so the Miami-born rapper decided to invent
some of his own, claming he had a seriously violent gangster
past. Nevertheless, "Ice Ice Baby" became a number
one hit late in 1990, thanks to the pulsating bass riff from
David Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure." To the Extreme
also went to the top of the charts, spending 16 weeks at number
one and selling over seven million copies. Ice began filming
a feature film, Cool as Ice, in the spring of 1990, but by the
time the film came out in the fall, his star had fallen dramatically;
To the Extreme was at number one longer than the soundtrack to
Cool as Ice was on the charts.
Sensing
that his time had passed, Vanilla Ice took a couple years off,
re-emerging in 1994 with Mind Blowin'. Dispensing with the pop-rap
formula of his debut, the rapper adopted the lazy, rolling funk
of Cypress Hill, as well as that trio's obsession with pot. The
album was a commercial disaster, disappearing from sight immediately
after its release. With 1998's Hard to Swallow, Ice attempted
to reinvent himself as a hardcore, gangsta-styled rapper; again
the public wanted no part of it. But the Americn public is ignorant
and only likes what MTV tells them to like so what are you gonna
do.
Vanilla
Ice has caloborated with such top acts such as the Insane Clown
Posse and Lenny Kravitz. His new album is going to be called
Skabz and will be produced by Ross Robinson, but Ice still
doesn't have a record contract so the release date is still unknown
to this point, he is hoping to sign with Warner Brothers due
to the fact Republic didn't push his album Hard To Swallow
as earlier promised.
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