Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1968),
better known as Vanilla Ice, is a Grammy Award nominated, American Music Award winning American rapper and actor known mostly for the 1990 single "Ice Ice Baby."
He found major mainstream success, selling twenty million records worldwide.[citation needed] However, his success lasted only about one year, and his rapid fall from
popularity remains one of the most notorious in recent decades, rendering Van Winkle the subject of innumerable "punch lines."[1] Though Van Winkle has
continued making music, he has yet to recapture anything approaching the level of mainstream success which he once enjoyed.
Early life and career
Van Winkle was born on Beachfront Avenue to Camilla Beth Van Winkle (nee Dickerson), a secretary, and part-time private music
teacher, and Dallas, Texas-born William Basil Van Winkle,.[2] He had attended R. L. Turner High
School in Carrollton, a suburb of
Dallas, Texas.
In 1989, Van Winkle was represented by Jay King of Dallas, Texas as part of the rap group Vanilla Ice, Chante, Ambiance, LaRue
and New Choice.[3] Van Winkle's first foray into the music
industry is the little-known rap album Hooked, released in 1989 on an
independent label. It sold about 69 copies -- successful for an independent release,
though Hooked is still a rarity and something of a collector's item among fans.
Mainstream success and failure (1990-1993)
His next album, To the Extreme, released in 1990, contained mostly new versions
of the same songs as Hooked. The album featured Vanilla Ice's best-known single, "Ice Ice
Baby", a rap song about his MC skills, the Miami scene, and a gun-fight on A1A/Beachfront Avenue. Van Winkle's manager and financier, Tommy Quon, chose a limited release
for the single, and no vinyl release for the album, so that fans bought the more expensive CD instead. As a consequence, To
The Extreme became the first #1 album in the US without a vinyl counterpart release. It went on to sell over 11 million
copies. Singer Alanis Morissette appeared as Van Winkle's opening act, and she later
went on to considerable mainstream success. In 1990, "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip-hop single to top reach #1 on the music
charts.[4]
Van Winkle starred in the motion picture Cool as Ice (1991), often colloquially
referred to on blogs and online reviews as "The Vanilla Ice Movie." The film was a very loose remake of Rebel Without a Cause updated for the 1990s, starring Van Winkle as "Johnny," a biker gang
member modeled on the Vanilla Ice character. Johnny falls in love with a preppy girl he meets
while riding through a small town. The soundtrack featured several new Vanilla Ice tracks, including a duet with Naomi Campbell.[5] The film was
both a commercial and critical failure. For his performance, Van Winkle won the "Worst New Star" award at the 1991 Golden Raspberry Awards. The film slipped into obscurity with only a limited VHS
release. However, in the early 2000s, it enjoyed a new status as a so-bad-it's-good cult
film.
Revisiting his songs for a third time, Van Winkle's next album was a live version of To The Extreme titled
Extremely Live. Though Extremely Live was certified gold (selling more than
500,000 copies), his fame had faded significantly by the time it was released in 1991, and sales of the album never approached
those of its predecessor.
Problems and fall from grace
Van Winkle's success also brought problems. "Ice Ice Baby" sampled the 1981 Queen and David
Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure" without permission, and a lawsuit followed.
Members of the national black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha accused Van Winkle of using the
fraternity's chant "Ice ice baby, too cold, too cold," without credit or permission.[6] Although initially writing in his original biography, "Ice Baby is a chant
that's done by the Alpha fraternity. I flipped the Vanilla in front of it and thought, '"That's cool,'" Van Winkle later denied
knowing of Alpha Phi Alpha.[6] Van Winkle
recorded a version of the funk-disco classic "Play That Funky Music", a major hit
for Wild Cherry in 1976; however, Wild Cherry singer-guitarist Rob Parissi alleged
that he was not credited as the writer of Van Winkle's version of the song.[7] His flamboyant stage outfits and over-stylized grooming inspired an imitative fad, but eventually led to great ridicule.
However, the most damning revelation occurred when it was disclosed that Van Winkle has lied about his upbringing. In an
attempt to bolster his "street credibility", Van Winkle claimed that he had attended a
predominantly black high school in Miami, Florida and had led a crime-riddled life,
rather than growing up in a stable, upper-middle-class family.[4] These facts first earned notoriety when student-reporters at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, a suburban and mostly white high school in Miami,
attempted to locate Van Winkle in the local district records, in the process determining Vanilla Ice's real name and background.
His deception was widely condemned, particularly in the hip hop community, and Van Winkle could not shake the perception that he
embodied the white mainstream's commercial appropriation and dilution of
traditionally Black music. The backlash all but turned Van Winkle into a pariah.
Van Winkle has been mocked in other rappers' lyrics, most notably by the later (and more successful) white rap artist
Eminem,[citation needed] but perhaps the most famous contemporary critique was 3rd Bass' song "Pop Goes the Weasel".[8] Its music video featured punk rock singer Henry Rollins, dressed like Van Winkle, being assaulted by the members of the group. The African-American
sketch comedy In Living Color also mocked Vanilla Ice with a sketch where the
rapper was portrayed (by Jim Carrey) as a bumbling phoney, the backup chorus singing "He's so
white-white baby!".[9] Both Chris Rock's character Nat X from Saturday Night Live and
rapper Ice-T in an interview with Rolling Stone
wondered if the rough-and-tumble "street" that Ice claimed to hail from was in fact Sesame
Street.[10][11]
Van Winkle also, around this time, appeared in Madonna's Sex book.[citation needed]
Rebranded image (1994-1998)
Van Winkle returned to music in 1994 with Mind Blowin'. His image had been
changed to a dreadlocked, marijuana-obsessed,
tattooed gangsta, insisting that his former sound and image had been pressed on him by his
record company. Shifting public tastes in music and fashion, the perception that he had altered his image to suit current trends,
as well as the fallout from negative press in the interim between albums, all contributed to the commercial failure of the
album.
On July 4, 1994, Van Winkle attempted to commit suicide and made another attempt later that same year, citing drug abuse and
anxiety surrounding his flagging career.
During this period, Van Winkle claimed in a television interview that he had been threatened and assaulted by Marion "Suge" Knight, founder and CEO of Death Row Records, for
royalties demanded by a former associate who claimed that he had, in fact, written "Ice Ice Baby." According to Van Winkle,
Knight dangled him by his ankles over a hotel balcony until he agreed to sign over the royalties from the track. Knight denied
the allegation. Van Winkle later confirmed that the incident never took place.[12] This alleged incident was parodied in the 2005 movie Be
Cool, in which Vince Vaughn's character, Roger — a street-talking, white record
producer loosely based on Vanilla Ice, was dangled from a building by Sin LaSalle's entourage (LaSalle himself, played by
Cedric the Entertainer, is partially based on Suge Knight). Another parody
appeared in a 2006 episode of Entourage where the character Johnny Drama is
held in the same fashion.
It wasn't until 1996 that he made his next appearance (credited as "Rob Van Winkle)," on the song "Boom" by suburban
Philadelphia comedy rock group The Bloodhound Gang. The track's deep bass groove and Van Winkle's uncharacteristic
tough guy flow on the first verse led to a quasi-ironic revival in popularity, and the first new Vanilla Ice CD in four
years.
In 1998, Hard to Swallow found Ice in a musically similar idiom to the track from the
Bloodhound Gang, using a contemporarily popular nu metal sound his press kit referred to as
"skate rock" that could be described as musically similar to early Limp Bizkit or
Korn. Van Winkle once again revised his image, and was now a tow-headed, pierced and tattooed headbanger. The
disc also included a revamped version of "Ice Ice Baby," renamed "Too Cold," and reinterpreted as a stomping heavy metal anthem. (Also performing on the album were Doug Ardito of Puddle of Mudd, DJ Swamp of Beck, Shannon
Larkin, Sonny Mayo, and Wes Borland of
Limp Bizkit, among others.)
In late 1998, Rob Van Winkle and his band had a gig in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at a popular club called, 'The Cats
Cradle.' During his performance several of the audience members had smuggled jars and lid containers into the venue. These
audience members took them to the restroom where they filled them urine and feces & During the performance of the revised
version of 'Ice,Ice, Baby,' these audience members slung the urine and feces hitting him all over his body, including his face
which sent the audience in an uproar and Rob Van Winkle ran off the stage. No one was ever charged, even though there is a video
in circlulation documenting the attack.
Career (1999-2001)
His career continued mainly with a number of minor television appearances. In 1999, Van Winkle appeared on an MTV special called MTV's 25 Lame in which MTV retired some of its worst videos. Van Winkle accepted an
invitation to appear and destroy the tape of "Ice Ice Baby" live on air. After chatting with the hosts (Janeane Garofalo, Chris Kattan, Denis Leary, and Jon Stewart), he took the bat and destroyed the tape
as well as the set. The show quickly transitioned to a commercial. During the mayhem, Van Winkle managed to cut Kattan's
foot.[citation needed]
In 2000, he co-hosted the car tuning program Ice with Jordan on the UK
Men & Motors channel, alongside glamour model Jordan; the title was also a pun on ICE (in-car entertainment).
In 2001, Van Winkle released Bipolar, which contained new metal material and
more contemporary hip-hop songs. It did little to rekindle public interest. On the album Van Winkle collaborated with many
artists such as Wu-Tang Clan affiliate La The
Darkman, Chuck D from Public
Enemy, and the Insane Clown Posse (which earned Van Winkel a following amongst
the "Juggalos", the famously devoted fans of Insane Clown Posse). Chuck D gives him credit to
this day. [13] Van Winkle also briefly appeared in the
JCW, the Insane Clown Posse's wrestling federation, to replace an injured
Shaggy 2 Dope.
Reality TV star (2002-present)
In 2002, Van Winkle was a participant in the reality show Celebrity Boxing.
Actor Todd Bridges defeated Van Winkle by knocking him down several times during the event.
Moreover, in 2004, Van Winkle starred in the second season of The Surreal Life
on VH1. On the show, despite his vow to not sing his early hits, Van Winkle eventually agreed to
sing a karaoke version of "Ice Ice Baby" at a bar with Trishelle Cannatella and Traci Bingham. In the same year, he
appeared on British television in the first season of the reality TV show The
Farm on Five in which he came in second place. He was also cast in the film
The Helix...Loaded, a parody of The
Matrix.
In June 2005, Van Winkle won the second round of NBC's Hit Me Baby One More Time, performing "Ice Ice Baby" and covering Destiny's Child's hit "Survivor". He also appeared on a VH1 special entitled "Remaking Vanilla Ice",
which featured the revamped Van Winkle preparing for the release of his new album Platinum Underground. Ice also appeared on the series Damage Control on MTV2 to promote the album.
Van Winkle released Platinum Underground in August 2005 containing some
new material, songs from Bi-polar, and some remakes of his older works; the album received mixed reviews and limited
sales. Along with the album's release, Van Winkle performed with Insane Clown Posse
at Hallowicked 2005. He also held a series of European concerts in November and December of the same year.
Controversy broke out on the G4 Forums website on September 19, 2005 when, in the heat of the co-hosting auditions, Attack of the
Show! claimed on their website that they had discovered a new, permanent cohost who wasn't going to be required to
audition. [citation needed] They claimed that "You’ve seen him in music videos, in his own film, and on
reality TV. He’s ice cold, goes to the extreme, and really knows how to play that funky music. And we’ve got him signed
exclusively to AOTS." ("Ice Cold" and "Play That Funky Music" were both tracks on Vanilla Ice's 1990 album To the Extreme). Adding to the prank, Ice personally appeared on the show on September 20, 2005 as the "new permanent co-host." After co-hosting a brief
segment, Ice publicized his new album and left. Kevin Pereira put an end to the prank with
the announcement, "Unfortunately, Vanilla Ice is not our new co-host."
Van Winkle also starred in The Surreal Life: Fame Games, which
began airing in 2007 on VH1. This show pitted stars from various seasons of The Surreal Life against each other in competitions. Ice won many individual competitions, as well
as winning several competitions for his team. At a concert at Virginia Tech, Ice claimed he beats up Ron Jeremy on the show, but "still has love for him." On February 2, 2007, the two appeared on
The Tyra Banks Show and claimed they were once again friends.[14]
Van Winkle is a contestant on Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull
Riding Challenge on CMT.
He made a brief guest appearance at London Nightclub Tiger Tiger in October 2007.[citation needed]
Personal life
Van Winkle was arrested by police in Davie, Florida in January 2001 for assaulting his
wife. According to the criminal complaint, they got into an argument as they drove on Interstate 595, with Ice allegedly pulling
the hair from his wife's head. He pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly conduct in April 2001 and was sentenced to probation
and ordered to attend family therapy sessions.[15][16]
He briefly attracted the attention of the media when his pet wallaroo, Bucky, and pet
goat, Pancho, escaped from his Port St. Lucie,
Florida home in November 2004. After wandering around local streets for over a week, the animals were caught, and returned
to Ice. He had to pay a $220 fine for expired pet tags, and an undisclosed fine for the escape of the animals.[17]
He currently lives in Wellington, Florida with his wife, Laura, and their two
daughters, Dusti Raine and Keelee Breeze.
Discography
Partial filmography
Footnotes
- ^ Anonymous, Vanilla Ice: Biography from The New Rolling Stone Album Guide(2004); URL
accessed 30 June 2007
- ^ William Addams Reitwiesner. Ancestry of Robert Matthew Van Winkle.
Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
- ^ Barton, David. (February 12, 1989) Sacramento Bee Breaking through is hard to do: Man behind music tries to regain his platinum
touch. Encore section, page 16.
- ^ a b
- ^ Williams, Jeannie. (May 21, 1991) USA
Today Find room for the Costners. Section: Life; Page 2D.
- ^ a b Parish, Ken. (November 18, 1990) Dallas Morning News Under Raps: Hot pop vocalist Vanilla Ice shrugs off conflicting versions
of his background. News section, page 1A.
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle
(January 30, 1991) Vanilla ice rapped for 'Sampling'; American music award winner defends practice. Daily datebook
section, page E1.
- ^ Gerhart, Ann. (June 12, 1991) Philadelphia Daily News Tattle: Water ice in his brains. Features yo! section, page
42.
- ^ YouTube Video: In Living Color Vanilla Ice Parody.
- ^ Nelson George (01-23-2005). Saturday Night Live Transcripts.
Retrieved on February 8, 2007.
- ^ SNL. Rhymin' and Stealin'. Retrieved on February 8, 2007.
- ^ Washington Post (February 17, 2006). Catching Up With...Vanilla Ice. Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
- ^ Commonwealthclub.org (May 5, 2005). Chuck D Interview.
Retrieved on April 11, 2007.
- ^ Delia (2-07-2007). Tyra Show Recap.
Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
- ^ The Smoking Gun (January 2001). TSG Mug Shot: Vanilla Ice.
Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
- ^ The Smoking Gun (January 2001). TSG Criminal Complaint: Vanilla
Ice. Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
- ^ ABC (wpbf.com) (November 19, 2004). Word to Your
Wallaroo: Vanilla Ice Fined. Retrieved on February 14, 2007.
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