Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), better known as Vanilla Ice, is a Grammy Award nominated, American Music Award winning Americanrapper and actor known mostly for the 1990 single "Ice Ice Baby."
He found major mainstream success, but his success lasted only about one year, and his rapid fall from popularity remains one of the most notorious in recent decades. Though Van Winkle has continued making music, he has yet to recapture anything approaching the level of mainstream success which he once enjoyed.
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 48,000 copies -- successful for an independent release, though Hooked is still a rarity and something of a collector's item among fans. HE HAS FANS?
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 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,"
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.
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.
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.
In 1998, Hard to Swallow found Ice using a contemporarily popular alternative 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 tattooedheadbanger. The disc also included a revamped version of "Ice Ice Baby," renamed "Too Cold," and reinterpreted as a stomping heavy metal anthem.
In 1999, Van Winkle appeared on an MTV special called MTV's 25 Lame in which MTV retired some of its worst videos. 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
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.
further info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_ice
Lyrics to Ice Ice baby (you know you want to)- http://www.lyrics007.com/Vanilla%20Ice%20Lyrics/Ice%20Ice%20Baby%20Lyrics.html
Take that danny! I too can put bad music up here!
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Originally Posted by SistaSara
