Vanilla Ice to perform at Hall

By: Ben Johnson

Posted: 9/3/08

The American music industry abounds with various anomalies from foreign sensations to bizarre remixes and cover bands. But perhaps the most renowned and even dreaded of The Billboard's Seven Circles of Infamy is the "One Hit Wonder." While the single itself often goes down in the annals of musical history, the artists often fall by the wayside or are simply remembered as the band or artist that "did that one song."

This is not to be the path of Robert Matthew Van Winkle - the artist known as Vanilla Ice.

Van Winkle began his unique trek to fame in the streets of Dallas as a breakdancer. It was in this arena that Van Winkle earned his infamous moniker: Vanilla Ice. As a small-time artist, Van Winkle played downtown nightclubs and was a warm-up act to such rap heavy weights as Public Enemy and M.C. Hammer.

It was in a Georgia nightclub in 1990 that the DJ decided to flip Van Winkle's then floundering single album over and play the B-side track: simply tagged "Ice, Ice Baby." The rest is history.

The track jumped to the top of the charts (despite out-of-court legal conflicts that the song alledgedly ripped off the melody of Queen's "Under Pressure") and has gone down in music history, both as a one-hit-wonder and the occasional guilty-pleasure-music-party appearance.

What began in 1990 has followed a multi-faceted and dark path to 2008. One of the stops on that path is The Texas Hall of Fame in Bryan this Wednesday. Along with DJ Get Low, Vanilla Ice will "light up the stage and rock the mic like a vandal" at 11:30 p.m.

Attendees should prepare for a different kind of performance. He's changed his tune from the hip-hop beats he laid down in the 90s.

"I never tried to reinvent myself," Van Winkle said. "I just try to be myself. I always have. The whole music industry is artificial. From American Idol to artists who don't even write their own material any more, it's all the same. Music shouldn't be about gimmicks or image, it should be about the music."

According to the former Billboard chart-topper, "Ice, Ice Baby" didn't embody who he was even then.

"[It] took on a life of its own. It became about this MTV image, but if you really listen to the lyrics, you can see it's not role-model material. But the image overpowered the song itself and [it] crossed over into the mainstream. At the time, though, the lyrics themselves were considered pretty taboo."

Despite the track's success and eventual infamy, Van Winkle felt it was just part of what he called "the monster." Contending that a song's quality should not be measured by its mainstream success, Van Winkle said he is far more proud of the music he is writing today - the kind of music that isn't played on the radio.

"I write for a different group of fans now. It's a much smaller scene, but I think my clientele would be upset if I made a radio hit. I'm all about the heavily-tattooed, body-pierced, mosh-pit-crazy, underground, hardcore scene."

He may still tour under the name Vanilla Ice, but the days of bouncing up and down to a "high hat with a souped-up tempo" are long gone. Vanilla Ice's music can be described as a straight-laced rapcore similar to Limp Bizkit. His 1998 release "Hard to Swallow," was the first album to showcase this new territory and was put together with the help of members of Godsmack, Sevendust and Limp Bizkit.

As for the immediate future, Van Winkle said he is putting together another full-length album with hopes of releasing it by the end of this year. In addition, he recently completed a "remixed" album with Cleopatra Records in which he covered such songs as House of Pain's "Jump Around," Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back" and Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldiers." The album is set for release in early November.

Van Winkle summed up his career and life with a simple, yet solid motto: "We are who we are because of who we were." If success is to be measured by mainstream longevity, Vanilla Ice is indeed the often hated, yet hallowed "One Hit Wonder." But there is certainly something to be said for connecting with a select few in an ever-evolving music scene.

As for his imminent arrival in College Station, Van Winkle said he has every intention of hanging out with fans after the show signing autographs, taking pictures and generally avoiding the stereotypically standoff-ish celebrity image.