Vanilla Ice — To the Extreme

Robert Matthew "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up between Dallas and Miami. The boy approaches hip-hop through poetry, then practiced breakdancing, which led to his friends nicknaming the kid "Vanilla", because he was the only one in the group who was not black. The moniker remained despite Van Winkle don't like it, he starts to do battle rapping at parties, conserving his moniker as "MC Vanilla", which eventually changed into the definitive "Vanilla Ice", combining his nickname with the name of one of his breakdance movies, "The Ice".

As a youngster, Van Winkle is a three times motocross champion, stopping his promising career after breaking his ankle during a race. The boy decides to return to breakdancing and write his own songs, getting noticed at an open mic in South Dallas and creating his own personal group, The Vanilla Ice Posse aka The V.I.P. As a performer for a nightclub, Vanilla Ice opened up for Public Enemy, The D.O.C., MC Hammer, 2 Live Crew, N.W.A and Tone Lōc, among others.

In 1987, Vanilla Ice is stabbed during a scuffle outside the nightclub. After recovering, he signs a contract with the owner of the club, Tommy Quon, and his management company. A couple of years later, the kid open for Stetsasonic, Sir Mix-A-Lot, EPMD and Ice-T on the Stop the Violence Tour, and Quon saw the commercial potential in Vanilla Ice figure, starting to take him to recording studios to create songs. In 1989, the guy debuts with the album "Hooked", distributed by the independent label Ichiban Records and released by the Texan sub-label Ultra Records, with production by Ice himself, Kim Sharp, Earthquake, David Deberry, Darryl Williams, Wayne Stalling, and Khayree.

"Play That Funky Music" is choose as first single of the debut album, with "Ice Ice Baby" as b-side. The latter track has an uncleared sample of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, Vanilla Ice initially refuses to pay for the sample, but is later forced to do so. Quon personally sent out the single to several radio stations around the States, but the single was almost never played. Only when a DJ in Georgia played the b-side instead of the a-side, the song gained a fanbase and other radio stations started to play it. Quon financed $ 8,000 for the production of the music video for the b-side "Ice Ice Baby", which received heavy airplay by tv channel "The Box", launching the career of Vanilla Ice.

Public Enemy tries to convince their producer Hank Shocklee to sign Vanilla Ice to Def Jam, instead the rapper later signs with SBK Records in 1990, serving as opening act for MC Hammer during his promotional tour for his breaking record album "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em". SBK remixed and re-recorded "Hooked" under the title "To the Extreme".

The whole record has weak music, poor and horrible lyrics, Vanilla Ice boasts rigid and horribly bad flow and has no personality on the mic. The album is pure junk. However, music critics failed to give this effort less than two out of five and the LP stop Hammer's reign, deposes him, and remained on the top of the Pop Chart for 16 weeks, selling 17 million copies worldwide, of which 7 in the United States in little more of four months, two million copies in the first five weeks of the release, becoming the fastest selling hip-hop album of all time and one of the fastest-certified albums in history, with four platinum certifications by RIAA in ten days.

The album is first in Canada (six times platinum), and goes strong worldwide, ripping certification in three continents, and becoming one of the best-selling albums of the year in Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. All this because he's white. Try to think if a white rapper came who had good music, decent lyrics and rhymes, a strong personality on the mic and a dope flow, what could he have done? He would dominate the music market for years and be revered as a God. Oh, yes... he's arrived, ten years later...