1. Vanilla Ice Never Stopped Performing (Or Being Famous)
It's very easy to assume that Vanilla Ice stopped making music immediately after Ice Ice Baby. After all, you probably never heard of him after that. Even today if you read articles about Vanilla Ice's Home Improvement show on DYI, you might see the article begin with the words "former rapper Vanilla Ice" - which really makes me question just how much research these reporters are putting into their work. Vanilla Ice actually never stopped performing and still performs regularly. Even though the rapper himself likes to talk about his days between camera interviews as a "weekend that lasted a few years", he always kept going - even when there wasn't much traction for him in the States. A 1995 interview with Ice (the headline being about how he is now forever de-Iced, claiming his rap career dead) talked about how he still plays overseas to sold out crowds in (believe it or not) Indonesia, the Philippines and (of course) Russia. While a lot of people like to talk smack about Vanilla Ice not having much of a career, he actually has a pretty huge international fanbase and whenever he has a show, people always show up. I've read some blog entries about some experiences in a Vanilla Ice show, the blog entry usually starts with someone saying that they went there as a goof and before the show was over, was having the time of their lives. Here is a live performance from 1997. This was during a time period that, according to most people, Vanilla Ice was the furthest from an attraction and was not playing shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvwB4NxpBo8 But don't tell the people in the audience that. They seem to be pretty ecstatic to be at a Vanilla Ice concert. Pretty good for someone that nobody cared about at that time, wouldn't you say? Another interesting element is noticing Vanilla Ice's hair is completely bleached at the time - almost two years before Eminem pulled off the exact same look. But if you ask any Eminem fan (or Eminem himself), Vanilla Ice dyed his hair only after Eminem did it. Despite the video evidence proving otherwise. Vanilla Ice still performs today, recently doing a concert in Vegas. Music is not the only thing he does of course, he's also quite the businessman. He opened up a line of extreme sport stores (titled 2 The X-Treme) back in 1996, owns a Cadillac car dealership and has been in the home renovation business since 1995 which landed him on DYI with his own show, The Vanilla Ice Project and two TV Specials, "Ice My House" and a new segment that follows Ice learning tips on house renovation from the Amish. But don't let that fool you to think he's done making new songs. He's hard at work on his new label, Psychopathic Records (the same label that houses the infamous Insane Clown Posse) and Ice hopes the record will drop in 2014. The man has lived an interesting life and his work outshines that one song that people refuse to let go. Don't get me wrong, I think Ice Ice Baby is a wonderful song and I'm happy that it remains a classic. But I hope more people will check out the other 120 songs he did and think it's okay to know something more about the guy behind the music. And I hope this article was both entertaining and educational. Word to your Mother.