6 Things You Didn't Know About Vanilla Ice (But Were Afraid To Ask)

6. Vanilla Ice Took Rap To The Mainstream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UphPBQ24I0A After Ice Ice Baby became a radio hit, Ice signed a million dollar contract with SBK/EMI Records and became one of the first rappers (alongside acts like MC Hammer) that took the United States by storm. Hip Hop had always been a street thing. It was created in the South Bronx and developed all over New York by pioneers like DJ Kool Herc, Spoony G, The Last Poets and the great Afrika Bambaataa. The music was made for the people by the people and very few radios even dared to play the songs. Run DMC were only able to show their music videos on MTV by claiming to be "Rock" (with songs like "I'm the King of Rock and sampling various older Rock songs in their music - something Vanilla Ice was obviously inspired by when he sampled artists like Wild Cherry, AC/DC, David Bowie and Queen). Other artists had definitely crossed that mainstream line before. Blondie (who was good friends with Fab Five Freddy) rapped in the 1982 song "Rapture" and producer Menahem Golan who made two movies about the newest fad: Breakdancing (titled Breakin' and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo) but record executives were still uncertain about the drawing power of hip hop. Then Vanilla Ice came around. A young white man that kind of looked like James Dean who seemed to understand the hip hop culture. He served as the record company's gateway to a demographic they were very interested in: White Suburbia. Vanilla Ice felt uneasy being used as a marketing tool, but was very happy getting his music out there. His fanbase quickly changed from like minded hip hop heads to screaming 12 year olds who couldn't get enough of him. A lot of other rappers that weren't getting the same kind of attention at the time felt that the mainstream would destroy hip hop. Rappers like Del the Funky Homosapien and MC Serch went as far as to state that hip hop was on the verge of dying as an art form. Their frustration was understandable as various artists dealing with more important issues were still being shunned by radios. But the impact changed the musical world and hip hop forever. Vanilla Ice becoming a mainstream artist opened the door for hip hop as a musical genre that could battle other genres on the charts and it became a lot more acceptable all over the USA to listen to hip hop. 1991 was the year both Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer sold a record breaking amount of records. And the year after that, seeing rappers on the billboard charts was nothing new. 1992 saw artists new artist like Snoop Dogg and legends like Dr. Dre top the charts and more aggressive rap became a part of the mainstream. But Vanilla Ice didn't only break down barriers in the United States. He broke even more of them worldwide. Vanilla Ice was one of the first rappers to do a world tour. His first record with a major label, To The Extreme (should have been called To the Mainstream) sold a an excessive amount of copies in Germany, Japan, the UK and Mexico. The impact was huge. He was the first rapper to play in former Communist countries like China and Russia and German music producers would start working on hip hop songs, creating acts like Snap! and C+C Music Factory. He even received a medal in Mexico for the inspiration his music has given the Mexican people. Even more amazing, Vanilla Ice did a huge show in Turkey and the entire audience (despite not understanding a lick of English) knew the entire lyrics to Ice Ice Baby by heart. While Vanilla Ice doesn't get a lot of respect in the States anymore, people all over the world still stand by him for being their introduction to rap. And his fashion style seems to be influencing a lot of the next generation of rappers.