Vanilla Ice- The Biggest Melt in Music

Music can best be described as subjective. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, some people enjoy rock while some heath… I mean ‘people’, prefer country. Then there’s a very small number of us who enjoy self inflicted pain, and thus enjoy the (early) sound of Vanilla Ice, the biggest melt in music.

Born in good ole’ Texas, Robert Matthew Van Winkle, released his first album, ‘Hooked’, in 1989. All before his signing of a contract with SBK Records. Releasing a reformatted version of the album with the new title of ‘To the Extreme’, which contained Ice's best-known hit: "Ice Ice Baby"- the absolute classic. I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one. I genuinely don’t know whether or not I hate or love this song, it’s ugly in it’s own beautiful way. Much like a car crash, though you know it’s disturbing, you can’t help but look.

With the help of Queen (non-consensually might I add), the song quickly rose to number 1 on the US charts, while only hitting number 3 in the UK- what can I say, we have taste. The track- believe it or not, has something of a plot, though is mostly a boast about a rad party. The story truly begins on line 37 of the lyrics, *ahem, "Rollin' in my 5.0." This line is describing Mr Van Winkle pulling up in Miami, checking out babes with his 9mm. But, OH NO, a shooting breaks out, which Robert promptly flees, as the cops decide that the crack heads are a better target than a white rapper with a bad haircut.

Ice bragged in 2016 to Entertainment Weekly that he wrote the masterpiece in 30 minutes, shocker, adding that they were based on fact. In my opinion fleeing the scene of a shooting is nothing to brag about but what do I know… anyway. He had this to say: "The song tells you the story. It's me, with my top down, in my 5.0 Mustang, cruising down A1A Beachfront Avenue. It's a weekend experience that turned into an amazing song. It's timeless. I still love singing it, and it never gets old."

Adding to the song's piracy, a rapper for Death Row Records, Mario "Chocolate" Johnson brought to light that he had also written part of the song without credit from Ice. This created a story that added itself to the book of hip-hop lore. Leading to a rumour that Label boss Suge Knight, along with Johnson and a football player for the Los Angeles Raiders, payed Ice a visit, which ended with him being hung off of a balcony by his ankles.This was later denied by Ice who claimed this was an exaggeration, and that Knight was polite in his request for the rights. Knight profited greatly from the rights, which went straight into Death Row Records and the development of artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac. Thanks Ice!

A lot of the distaste that comes with this song is provided by the black community, and it’s not hard to see why. It was the first rap song to hit number one in the US charts, bearing in mind that this song came out the same year as Queen Latifah’s “Wrath of Madness”. It was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rap Performance. The award went to MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This." It was only the second year a Grammy was given in the category, and the first was won by DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) for "Parents Just Don't Understand." Which obviously didn't go down too well with the rap community, Believing that the songs could barely be considered rap. Public Enemy was also nominated for the award but protested the show.

It’s easy to see that rappers in this era were not praised nearly enough for their genius, with the whiter, I mean wider, audience not understanding their topics. As most of the music in this genre came from the daily racism and poverty they had to face everyday, due to the society that white people had created for them. Which Vanilla obviously didn’t understand.

All in all, this track became the bane and gift of Ice’s existence. It made him the butt of many jokes in the rap community, if that wasn’t already the case, but it also made BANK. Nevertheless, this song will continue to be played at clubs and bar mitzvahs alike. Staying the top track on any throwback playlist of our generation, what can I say, it's catchy. Okay now that that’s done, I'm going to cleanse my ears with some bleach, and listen to some TUPAC.