10 Songs That Led To Massive Lawsuits

Ice Ice Baby was the biggest hit of Vanilla Ice's career and it sampled the bassline from Under Pressure, the Queen and David Bowie classic. Ice, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, disputed the claim that the melodies were identical in a 1990 statement but he later went back on this (saying his comments were made jokingly) when legal action was taken by Bowie and all of the members of Queen. The British artists didn't find the idea of any association with Ice funny.

There was an argument made that this collaboration that Bowie and Queen were forced into had somehow damaged their reputation. They were forever linked with a rapper detested by the community he wished to be accepted most by. Eminem was one prominent rapper who said that Ice's public profile made it hard for him, a fellow white rapper, to be taken seriously. Although his reputation was in tatters, Ice's hit topped the Billboard Charts and Bowie and Queen were happy for that, eventually settling out of court for an undisclosed sum.

The epilogue to this drama is no less fascinating. An associate of infamous record producer Suge Knight, a Californian rapper named Mario "Chocolate" Johnson, claimed that he wrote Ice Ice Baby and had received no credit or royalties. Ice claims that Knight launched an intimidation campaign against him to get him to sign the rights of the song over to Johnson.

It culminated with Knight confronting Ice on a 15th-floor hotel balcony, implying he would throw him over if he didn't do it. Unsurprisingly, Ice signed. Knight is now in prison for other crimes.