Biography
Written by Vanilla Ice
It's a true story that Video Killed the Radio Star because music should not be about image. Music should be about the music! I learned the hard way. The new Vanilla Ice is exactly that; no image, no polished made up gimmicks created by record companies. I will never be a puppet for the industry again. From this point on I will keep it real. That's why I didn't change the name. It doesn't mean anything; it's only a label. It's not important, plus I am not running from anything or trying to hide. I want people to know that I face my adversaries. Don't get me wrong, though I love Ice Ice Baby, I just can't stand the image that was created for me at that time. Even though it worked and we sold 17 million records, I was treated like a puppet just to make a Hip Hop artist look like a novelty act. I was not designed to be that. I was turned into that by making my image more acceptable to a younger audience, but to tell the difference just listen to the music. It's Hip Hop not Pop like all the other novelty acts. This is the reason I put out "Hard to Swallow" the most un-radio friendly, non-commercial, non-mainstream record you can find. I didn't want people to call this my comeback record. I wanted to keep it real and cater to those who appreciate what I was doing. "Hard to Swallow" is a true therapy record. It felt good to exorcise my demons and let it out on the record. Sure it has a lot of anger, depression, and stress, but these are the things I want out of me. So I used the music to help.
The media has a way of glamorizing what it's like to be a celebrity, and that's where people get the illusion, but the reality of it is much different. I'm not speaking from just my own experiences. Take a look at the track record, it speaks for itself, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis, and lately Kurt Cobain. These celebrities had a hard time dealing with the reality of being famous. Many used drugs to escape from reality just as I did. It was the only way to find peace and happiness. The thing was, no matter how high I got I still had to come back reality and face it all again. That's when the depression sets in. That's when you hit rock bottom and you either die from it or learn from it. I used to think that money would bring me happiness because I thought of all the material things that I could buy. After experiencing what it's like to be rich, I realized that you are not born with it and you also can't take it with you when you die. What's next?
In '94 I tried to kill myself by overdosing on heroin, cocaine, esctasy, and anything I could get my hands on. At one point, my friends were dumping buckets of cold water on me as I lay on my bathroom floor in convulsions. At that point I had over eighteen million dollars in the bank, and I still couldn't find happiness in being rich or famous. So, after waking up a couple of days later, I realized that I needed to make a change in everything and just go back to the things that used to bring me happiness, like Motocross. I met new friends and started to straighten my life up, and with the help of "Hard to Swallow" and my family I found new hope.
Now I have a new outlook on life and music. The music is for myself, not to be rich or famous. The new sound is also much harder and darker because of the issues I am writing about. It caters to a new crowd. It leans toward the body piercing, tattoo crowd aging from 15 to 25: the same crowd that you might find at a Korn, Limp Bizkit or Slipknot show. In fact, it was the producer of these bands, Ross Robinson, who produced my record "Hard to Swallow". I am now working on a follow-up record coming out late this year called "Skabz". It features a collaboration of well known artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, Lenny Kravitz, Public Enemy, Insane Clown Posse, and more. The album is produced by myself and other producers including Steve Evetts (Sick of It All, Sepultura), and Ross Robinson will oversee everything. It will be heavy, but at the same time different. I call this type of Hip Hop/Metal Molten Hip Hop. Stay tuned because the best has yet to come. Check out VanillaIce.com, my official website, for more info and updates.
V-Ice -- the artist also known as Vanilla Ice—returns with a brand new album and a brand new attitude. Hard-nosed and harder-edge, this time, says Ice, "It’s all about keepin’ it real." Bi-Polar, a double CD packaged as one and presented in two parts – Skabz and Tha System – is Ice’s first disc in three years, and the proof is in the industrial strength grooves he’s laid down. It’s a massive attack: the Iceman is back. With a vengeance.
It was just over a decade ago that Ice first stormed the music scene with his monster debut album, To The Extreme, which was certified 7x platinum a mere four months after its release and went on to sell 15 million records worldwide. One of those just-right-for-its-time pop culture phenomenona, Extreme topped the charts at #1 for 18 weeks. The ever-present "Ice, Ice Baby" was a platinum-plus single, another single, "Play That Funky Music White Boy" went solid gold, and MTV was lovin’ it all. Black or white, GRAMMY®-nominated, People’s Choice-awards laden Ice was the hottest rapper in the land, on top of the world.
Or so you would think. Soon enough, the trappings of instant success and the glare of the spotlight melted Ice down. It wasn’t all wave riders and parties at his sunny south Florida mansion. There was the critical backlash, the ‘playa hatin’,’ the self-destructive abuse, the violence, the follow-ups that didn’t live up. Once a multi-platinum poster boy, he turned into one for bad behavior and ‘Least Wanted’.
V-Ice himself had trouble figuring that last one out, and he went through some very dark times indeed before coming out the other end with a new commitment to life and to working through its often-harsh realities. A personal connection to God came, as well as marriage and two daughters along with an approach to making records that helped in exorcising his demons so they wouldn’t drag him down again.
"It’s emotional therapy caught on tape," says V-Ice, "I use the music to expose things that I have seen through my own eyes, and the music has changed because my life has changed. It’s not about some image or gimmick…it’s all about the music." Bi-Polar, on BMG-distributed Liquid 8 Records, is made up of 24 original tracks in a two-part opus, and you can literally feel the release rising from the smoldering grooves. Ice teamed back up with Executive Producer/Manager, Tommy Quon, to record the new album. Produced by Ice, Bi-Polar features a who’s who of rap, rock and hip-hop masters lending their flavas including Chuck D., Insane Clown Posse, former Slipknot-er Josh Brainard, and Wu-Tang’s LA Tha Darkman.
Ever since "Ice, Ice Baby," life has been a wild and crazy ride, and on his latest work, Ice has managed to translate that experience into an explosive new sound. Maybe hell has frozen over…and that’s a lot of Ice.
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