Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality. Born in South Dallas, and raised in Texas and South Florida, Van Winkle released his debut album, Hooked, in 1989 through 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. Van Winkle's single "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts.
Although Van Winkle was successful, he later regretted his business arrangements with SBK, which had paid him to adopt a more commercial appearance to appeal to a mass audience and published fabricated biographical information without his knowledge. After surviving a suicide attempt, Van Winkle was inspired to change his musical style and lifestyle. While later albums by Van Winkle haven't charted or featured much radio airplay because of their less mainstream, rock-oriented sound, Vanilla Ice has had a loyal underground following. In 2009, Van Winkle began hosting The Vanilla Ice Project on DIY Network. His latest album WTF – Wisdom, Tenacity & Focus was released in August 2011. Van Winkle is currently signed to Psychopathic Records.
In 1985, Van Winkle was focusing all of his energy on motocross, winning three straight titles at the Grand National Championships in Dallas. After breaking his ankle during a race, Van Winkle was not interested in racing professionally for some time, using his spare time to perfect his dance moves and creating his own while his ankle was healing. Van Winkle used his beatboxing and breakdancing skills as a street performer with his friends at local malls.
One evening he visited City Lights, a South Dallas night club, where he was dared to go on stage by his friend Squirrel during an Open Mic. He won the crowd over and was asked by City Lights manager John Bush if he wanted to perform regularly which he accepted. Ice would be joined on stage with his disc jockey D-Shay and Zero as well as Earthquake, the local disc jockey at City Lights. The Vanilla Ice Posse or The V.I.P. would also perform with Ice on stage. As a performer for City Lights, Ice opened up for N.W.A, Public Enemy, The D.O.C., Tone Lōc, 2 Live Crew, Paula Abdul, Sinbad and MC Hammer.
In January 1987, Van Winkle was stabbed five times during a scuffle outside of City Lights, after spending ten days at the hospital, Ice signed a contract with the the owner of City Lights, Tommy Quon and his management company, Ultrax.Quon saw commercial potential in Van Winkle's rapping and dancing skills.
Buying studio time with Quon's earnings from City Lights and money Van Winkle had earned selling MDMA, they recorded songs that had been perfected on stage by Ice and his acquaintances with various producers, including Khayree. The two year production was distributed by an independent record company called Ichiban Records in 1989.
Van Winkle's debut album Hooked sold 48,000 copies in the south." Play That Funky Music" was released as the album's first single, with "Ice Ice Baby" appearing as the B-side. Tommy Quon personally sent out the single to various radio stations around the US, but the single was seldom played and when it was, it did not get the reaction Quon was hoping for. When disc jockey Darrell Jaye in Georgia played "Ice Ice Baby" instead of the single's A-side, the song gained a quick fanbase and other radio stations followed suit. Quon financed $8,000 for the production of a music video for "Ice Ice Baby", which received heavy airplay by The Box, increasing public interest in the song. Van Winkle later opened for EPMD, Ice-T, Stetsasonic and Sir Mix-A-Lot on the Stop the Violence Tour.
Following the success of "Ice Ice Baby", record producer Suge Knight and two bodyguards arrived at The Palm in West Hollywood, where Van Winkle was eating. After shoving Van Winkle's bodyguards aside, Knight and his own bodyguards sat down in front of Van Winkle, staring at him before finally asking "How you doin'?" Similar incidents were repeated on several occasions. Eventually, Knight showed up at Van Winkle's hotel suite on the fifteenth floor of the Bel Age Hotel, accompanied by a member of the Oakland Raiders. According to Van Winkle, Knight took him out on the balcony by himself, and implied that he would throw him off the balcony unless he signed the publishing rights to the song over to Knight; Knight used Van Winkle's money to help fund Death Row Records.
On the basis of Van Winkle's good looks and dance moves, Public Enemy tried to convince their producer, Hank Shocklee, to sign Van Winkle to Def Jam, but Van Winkle later signed a contract with SBK Records in 1990. SBK remixed and re-recorded Hooked under the title To the Extreme. The reissue contained new artwork and music. According to Van Winkle, SBK paid him to adopt a more commercial, conventional appearance. This led Van Winkle to later regret his business agreements with SBK.
SBK Record executive Monte Lipman stated that he received calls from radio stations reporting over 200 phone calls requesting Ice Ice Baby. SBK wanted Ice on the road as soon as possible. MC Hammer, an old acquaintance from his club days, had Ice on as an opening act on his tour.
Cool as Ice opened on October 18, 1991 in 393 theaters in the United States, grossing $638,000, ranking at #14 among the week's new releases. Reviews of the film were negative. Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 8%. Van Winkle received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star.
SBK stated that they overexposed Ice and Van Winkle decided to stop taking their business advices as well as distancing himself from the image that SBK was trying to create for him. In late 1991, Ice appeared in the Circus of the Stars and Sideshow, driving his motorcycle through a wall of fire.
While his fame in the United States had severely dropped, Ice continued performing to sold out crowds in his 1992 world tour, playing in South America, Europe, Australia and Asia, premiering new songs like "Get Loose", "The Wrath", "Now & Forever", "Where the Dogs At? (All Night Long)", "Minutes of Power" and "Iceman Path". After a performance in Acapulco, the city honored Van Winkle with a medal that represented "all the respect and admiration to [Van Winkle's] music and to [him] as an artist from the Mexican people". Van Winkle also served as a spokesperson for Nike and Coca-Cola throughout 1991 and 1992.
After almost nothing but non-stop touring for the past three years, Van Winkle took a small break from music in 1993 and started competing in Jet skiing under his real name. In 1993, most members of the Vanilla Ice Posse had gone their separate ways, including Ice's disc jockey Earthquake and D-Shay. Ice's hype man and second disc jockey Zero, became Ice's DJ full time. In late 1991, Ice had started production on his second album, Mind Blowin, but continuous touring in 1991-1992 delayed the album severely.
Van Winkle was interested in responding to his critics by having his next album surpass his earlier and popular work. In 1992, Ice started writing response songs aimed at 3rd Bass and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Together with Zero, the new album started production yet again, scrapping a lot of finished songs and re-doing others. Zero would help create new beats to songs that Van Winkle had already performed live such as "The Wrath", while other songs like "Iceman Path" and "Get Loose" were left unchanged. In 1993, Ice toured Eastern-Europe again and premiered songs off his upcoming album in St. Petersburg, Russia in front of President Boris Yeltsin. During months of non-stop touring, Van Winkle and the remaining back-up dancers smoked cannabis regularly after a show.
Van Winkle later developed a friendship with producer Ross Robinson, who had become known for producing music by Deftones, Korn, Limp Bizkit and Sepultura. Robinson and Van Winkle shared an interest in motocross racing.[19] Monte Lipman hoped that Robinson would produce a new Vanilla Ice album. According to Robinson, others had attempted to discourage him from working with Van Winkle, saying it might hurt his reputation. Rather than being dissuaded, their fear encouraged Robinson who agreed to work with Van Winkle. In an interview, Robinson stated "It's the most punk-rock thing you could do."
Van Winkle started talking very openly about his early business ventures in interviews while the album was being recorded. Appearing in interviews and TV documentaries about his former image, selling out and his run-ins with Suge Knight. Despite not being happy with his old image, Winkle stated that he never had a problem with his older music. Van Winkle decided against changing his stage name to something else, as he felt no need to run from his past, despite being uneasy with some of it and started performing again, booking a hundred shows a year.
In May 2000, Van Winkle wrestled in a match promoted by Juggalo Championship Wrestling, then known as Juggalo Championshit Wrestling, filling in for Insane Clown Posse member Joseph Utsler, who had been injured during a match. MTV News reported that Insane Clown Posse would make an appearance on Van Winkle's next album, tentatively titled Bomb Tha System.
In October 2000, Van Winkle announced that his next album would be titled Skabz, and that Chuck D was confirmed to appear on the album. It was initially planned as a double album featuring a disc containing rock-oriented material and a disc of hip hop songs. In July 2001, Van Winkle performed at the second Gathering of the Juggalos. On October 23, 2001, Skabz and Bomb Tha System were released as a together as Bi-Polar.
The album also featured La the Darkman, Perla, Insane Poetry and Bob Kakaha. Bradley Torreano of Allrovi disliked the album, criticizing it as "wildly uneven and at times hilariously bad", but also stating "Vanilla Ice is still better than a lot of the rap-metal bands that erupted in 2000/2001." and the rap beats on Bomb Tha System "are surprisingly solid". In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Rob Kemp gave the album one out of five stars, calling the album "utterly listless". According to a Sony BMG executive, sales of Bi-Polar were "not bad...for Vanilla Ice. That's pretty respectable. Seriously."
In 2007, Van Winkle returned to a spin-off to The Surreal Life entitled The Surreal Life: Fame Games where he again trashed the set after being voted off. In September 2008, Van Winkle signed a contract with Cleopatra Records, recording the cover album Vanilla Ice Is Back! at the label's request.
The album was released on November 4, 2008, and contained covers of songs by Public Enemy, House of Pain, Bob Marley and Cypress Hill. IGN reviewer Spence D. called the album "an embarrassing endeavor that sounds like it should have stayed locked inside Ice's studio (or at the very least leaked on YouTube and passed off as a piss take)." On February 27, 2009, Van Winkle performed as part of a joint performance with MC Hammer in Orem, Utah called "Hammer Pants And Ice", which featured 24 dancers and a full choir. In April 2009, Van Winkle appeared in the music video for Eminem's song "We Made You".
In August 2009, Van Winkle announced on his official Twitter account that he had signed a contract with StandBy Records; however, Van Winkle later left the label. Ice was a special musical guest at the 2010 National Television Awards in January, performing with Jedward for their remix and debut single "Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)". Van Winkle also recorded his verse for their album Planet Jedward and appeared in the music video. Vanilla Ice was a part of The Back2Kool concert tour with Turbo B and MC Hammer, playing worldwide in late 2010.
Ice reunited with his former DJ; Floyd 'Earthquake' Brown for the shows overseas. In early 2011, Vanilla Ice appeared on the sixth season of the UK show Dancing on Ice as well as various ice skating tours surrounding the show.
In December 2011, Van Winkle will portray Captain Hook in the Chatham, Kent Central Theatre pantomime production of Peter Pan, in the role that once belonged to Henry Winkler. He also turned on the Christmas Lights for Rochester, Kent in Rochester Castle, as part of the promotion for the panto.
Van Winkle will record an album for Psychopathic with production by Mike E. Clark. Joseph Bruce stated that it will be released between the end of 2011 and early 2012.
