Vanilla Ice has had quite the interesting life but we mostly think of him as the "Ice Ice Baby" guy. First, for all you youngsters and whippersnappers out there, here is the lowdown on the first rapper to get a single on the top charts. Vanilla Ice was born Robert Matthew Van Winkle in South Dallas and spent his childhood moving between neighborhoods (some good, some bad) with his single mother and half-siblings. At a very young age, he got interested in the hip hop movement that was sweeping the streets in the early 80's. Van Winkle, known as Robbie to his friends, started picking up on the dance moves and eventually started battle rapping at underage keg parties, earning the nickname "Ice" by his peers (at the time, if your lyrics were "dope", they were "ice"). However, due to his complexion (he was the only white kid in the group), he also got another nickname: Vanilla. Under the name, Vanilla Ice, the young enthusiastic rapper would do whatever it took to get noticed on both the Florida and Texas club scenes, eventually scoring it big in a South Dallas nightclub at the age of 16, when he was dared to go on stage and won the audience over with a freestyle, beatbox and breakdancing. He was immediately signed by local record executive Tommy Quon, who would produce his first record. The five year process resulted in the album "Hooked" which was distributed by an independent record company called Ichiban. Alongside the album, Quon produced a couple of music videos that had a $8000 price range. The album only did moderately well, but one song on the record (when it finally received any airtime) took off in a way that nobody could imagine, that song was "Ice Ice Baby" and the face of Hip Hop was forever changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE But what else do we know of this rap oddity? Let's take a trip down memory lane... Here are 6 things that you (probably) didn't know about the first rapper ever to make it to the top of the billboard charts!