Early career (1985–1989) In 1985, he was focusing all of his energy on motocross, winning three championships. After breaking his ankle during a race, Ice was not interested in racing professionally for some time, using his spare time to perfect his dance moves and creating his own while his ankle was healing. Ice used his beatboxing and breakdancing skills as a street performer with his friends at local malls during this time. One evening he visited City Lights, a South Dallas nightclub, where he was dared to go on stage by his friend Squirrel during an open-mic. He won the crowd over and was asked by City Lights manager John Bush if he wanted to perform regularly, which he accepted. Ice would be joined on stage by his disc jockeys D-Shay and Zero, as well as Earthquake, the local disc jockey at City Lights. The Vanilla Ice Posse or
The V.I.P. would also perform with Ice on stage. In January 1987, Ice was stabbed five times during a scuffle outside of City Lights. After spending ten days in the hospital, Ice signed a contract with the owner of City Lights, Tommy Quon, and his management company, Ultrax. Two years later, Ice would open for
EPMD,
Ice-T,
Stetsasonic, and
Sir Mix-A-Lot on the
Stop the Violence Tour. Quon saw commercial potential in Ice's rapping and dancing skills. Buying studio time with Quon's earnings from City Lights, they recorded songs that had been perfected on stage by Ice and his acquaintances with various producers, including
Khayree. The two year production was distributed by an independent record company called
Ichiban Records in 1989. "
Play That Funky Music" was released as the album's first single, with "Ice Ice Baby" appearing as the
B-side. Tommy Quon personally sent out the single to various radio stations around the U.S., but the single was seldom played and when it was, it did not get the reaction Quon was hoping for. When disc jockey Darrell Jaye in
Georgia played "Ice Ice Baby" instead of the single's A-side, the song gained a quick fanbase and other radio stations followed suit. which received heavy airplay by
The Box, increasing public interest in the song.
Mainstream success (1990–1992) On the basis of Ice's good looks and dance moves,
Public Enemy tried to convince their producer,
Hank Shocklee, to sign Ice to
Def Jam, but Ice later signed a contract with
SBK Records in 1990. During
MC Hammer's ''
Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em World Tour'', Ice served as an opening act. According to Ice, SBK paid him to adopt a more commercial, conventional appearance. This led Ice to later regret his business agreements with SBK.
To the Extreme became the fastest selling
hip hop album of all time, spending sixteen weeks at 1 on the
Billboard 200 and selling eleven million copies. SBK Record executive
Monte Lipman stated that he received calls from radio stations reporting over 200 phone calls requesting "Ice Ice Baby". SBK wanted Ice on the road as soon as possible.
MC Hammer, an old acquaintance from his club days, had Ice on as an opening act on his tour. Reviews of
To the Extreme were mixed.
Entertainment Weekly reviewer Mim Udovitch gave the album a B, citing "Ice Ice Baby", "Play That Funky Music", "Dancin'" and "It's a Party" as the album's highlights.
Robert Christgau gave the album a C− rating, writing that Ice's "suave sexism, fashionably male supremacist rather than dangerously obscene, is no worse than his suave beats". Criticizing the technique and style of Vanilla Ice,
Allrovi reviewer Steve Huey wrote:
Media image In late 1990, Ice began an eight-month relationship with
Madonna, and appeared in photographs for her book,
Sex. In the height of Ice's popularity, SBK licensed a 12" doll which was made by THQ. In January 1991, he was the musical guest on
Saturday Night Live. Ice branched out into the film industry with an appearance in the film
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, which he later called "one of the coolest experiences" of his career. In an attempt to rectify this, his former label wrote a fake biography in his name and tried to pass it off as his official life story without his knowledge. While on tour in 1991, Ice found out that SBK had instigated the publication of the biography which detailed false biographical information, including claims that he had attended school with
Luther Campbell, and exaggerating his living conditions in Miami, which Ice later had to debunk by himself.
Suge Knight incident Following the success of "Ice Ice Baby", record producer
Suge Knight and two bodyguards arrived at
The Palm in
West Hollywood, where Ice was eating. After shoving Ice's bodyguards aside, Knight and his own bodyguards sat down in front of Ice, staring at him before finally asking "How you doin'?" Similar incidents were repeated on several occasions. Eventually, Knight showed up at Ice's hotel suite on the fifteenth floor of the Bel Age Hotel, accompanied by a member of the
Los Angeles Raiders football team.
Live album, Cool as Ice, and tours Ice's second major release was the live album
Extremely Live, released in March 1991. The album was a live recording during Vanilla Ice's performance in Miami during his
To The Extreme World Tour. Premiering new songs like "
Rollin' in My 5.0", "Road To My Riches" and "Satisfaction", the album peaked at No. 30 on the
Billboard 200, but it received mainly negative reviews.
Entertainment Weekly reviewer
David Browne called it "one of the most ridiculous albums ever released", comparing it to
The Best of Marcel Marceau, an album which consisted of two sides of silence opened by brief applause. According to Browne,
Extremely Live "affords you the chance to hear inane stage patter [...] and unaccompanied drumming, during which, one assumes, Ice and his posse are onstage dancing." Monte Lipman later stated that SBK only released the live disc to make more money from Ice's fame. In April 1991, Ice began to film the SBK produced
Cool as Ice, in which he played a leading role.
Cool as Ice opened on October 18, 1991, in 393 theaters in the United States, grossing $638,000, ranking at No. 14 among the week's new releases. Reviews of the film were negative. Film website
Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 8%. Ice received a
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star. SBK stated that they overexposed Ice and Ice decided to stop taking their business advice, as well as distancing himself from the image that SBK was trying to create for him. In late 1991, Ice appeared in the
Circus of the Stars and Sideshow, driving his motorcycle through a wall of fire. While his fame in the United States had severely dropped, Ice continued touring in 1992, playing in South America, Europe, Australia and Asia, and premiering new songs like "Get Loose", "The Wrath", "Now & Forever", "Where the Dogs At? (All Night Long)", "Minutes of Power" and "Iceman Party". After a performance in
Acapulco, the city honored Ice with a medal that represented "all the respect and admiration to [Ice's] music and to [him] as an artist from the Mexican people". Ice also served as a spokesperson for
Nike and
Coca-Cola throughout 1991 and 1992.
Mind Blowin, music break and drug abuse (1993–1996) In 1993, Ice toured Eastern Europe again and premiered songs off his upcoming album in
St. Petersburg, Russia in front of President
Boris Yeltsin. After almost non-stop touring for the previous three years, Ice took a break from music and began competing in
jet skiing, as well as resuming
Motocross racing. After becoming more interested with the
Rastafari movement, Ice became a vegetarian, grew
dreadlocks and talked more openly about smoking cannabis. Ice then began work on his next album, although by this time he received less publicity and faded from the public spotlight. On March 22, 1994, Ice released his second studio album, ''
Mind Blowin'. Reviews were unfavorable. Entertainment Weekly'' reviewer James Bernard called the album "more clunky than funky".
Allrovi reviewer
Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "There isn't a single moment that establishes a distinct musical identity, and the whole thing is rather embarrassing." At around this time, Ice began using
ecstasy,
cocaine and heroin. During periods of heavy drug use, Ice received many tattoos from
artist acquaintances. According to Ice, he "was in [his] binge days. [He] didn't even realize how many [he] was getting". Ice attempted suicide with a heroin
overdose on July 4, 1994, but was revived by his friends. After being revived, Ice decided that it was time to change his lifestyle. As a symbol of his attempt to begin anew, he got a tattoo of a leaf on his stomach. Despite not being happy with his old image, Ice stated that he never had a problem with his older music. He decided against changing his stage name, as he felt no need to run from his past, despite being uneasy with some of it, and started performing again, booking a hundred shows a year. Reviews were generally negative; Jon Pareles of
The New York Times wrote, "The most earnest new song,
Scars, condemns an abusive father. The sentiments would sound more genuine if Korn hadn't gotten there first." Richard Torres of
Rolling Stone gave the album two out of five stars, writing that while "nothing, however, can redeem Ice's wack boasting," the album "isn't half-bad." In
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Rob Kemp gave the album three out of five stars, writing that it contained Ice's "most convincing music". In promotion of
Hard to Swallow, Ice toured with a seven-piece live band which included future
Weezer bassist
Scott Shriner. The band opened with rock-oriented material from
Hard to Swallow and concluded with older hip hop songs. The setlist also included "Power", based upon
Led Zeppelin's "
Immigrant Song". Ice said that writing the songs and performing them were like therapy, as he had tried to hide his anger when making his older songs but Robinson was the first producer who told him to use it to create. Vanilla Ice was a member of the softball team
The Hip Hop Stars alongside
Dr. Dre,
Snoop Dogg and
Method Man in a 1999 game shown on
MTV Rock N' Jock . Later in 1999, MTV asked Vanilla Ice to join their cast to "retire" the music video for "Ice Ice Baby" on the MTV special
25 Lame, in which Ice himself was asked to destroy the video's master tape. When Ice was given a baseball bat, he ended up destroying not only the film but the show's entire set as well. In 2001, DJ ReAnimator remixed "Ice Ice Baby" with Vanilla Ice re-doing his vocals for the track.
Ice Ice Baby 2001 was released as a single and music video for the European market, spawning a wave of new overseas interest in Vanilla Ice. Having attracted a following outside of his former mainstream audience, Ice began recording independently, despite still being signed to Universal. During a recording session, Ice met the all-female American
hard rock band from
Southern California,
Betty Blowtorch.
Bianca Halstead bonded with Ice and asked if he wanted to contribute a rap interlude to their track
Size Queen. On Ice's collaboration with the band, lead vocalist and bassist Halstead was quoted saying, "I asked him if he could rap over [the track] and he said he can rap over anything. And he could!" Per his stepfather's request, Ice started working with his former manager Tommy Quon again. While hoping to re-create some of the magic that they worked hard on in the early 1990s, Ice denied any interest in trying to become big again, stating that his only passion was music, not fame. In July 2001, Ice performed at the second Gathering of the
Juggalos. On October 23, 2001, Ice released the album
Bi-Polar. Initially conceived as a double album consisting of one disc of rock music (
Skabz) and one disc of hip hop music (
Bomb Tha System), both parts were released on one disc. The album also featured
La the Darkman, Perla,
Insane Poetry and
Bob Kakaha. Bradley Torreano of
Allrovi disliked the album, criticizing it as "wildly uneven and at times hilariously bad," but also stating "Vanilla Ice is still better than a lot of the rap-metal bands that erupted in 2000/2001" and that the rap beats on
Bomb Tha System "are surprisingly solid." In
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Rob Kemp gave the album one out of five stars, calling the album "utterly listless".
Independent releases and television (2002–2009) (left) performing in July 2009 With Quon back as manager, Ice was scheduled to appear in various reality TV programs. Ice, still an entertainer at heart, felt that the experience would be good for him. In 2002, he appeared on Celebrity Boxing, fighting
Todd Bridges under the name 'Bi-Polar'. In 2003, he appeared in five episodes of
Hollywood Squares, eight episodes of
The Farm and three episodes of Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge, and made a cameo appearance in
The New Guy in 2002. Around this time, Vanilla Ice also returned to the world of motocross. He auditioned for the 2002 X Games in the freestyle division and placed seventh at the 2003 Suzuki Crossover challenge, according to Sports Illustrated. He told the magazine that the track "is where I'm happiest." In 2003, Ice contributed vocals to "Off the Chain" by 7x70, a side project of
Iron Maiden drummer
Nicko McBrain and
Anthrax guitarist
Dan Spitz. A demo of the song was
leaked in June. In 2003, Ultrax reissued
Bomb Tha System (the second part of "Bi-Polar") under the title
Hot Sex, which was a single from the original album. Ice included a song titled
Ninja Rap 2, which was set to be a hardcore remix. Aside from the name, the song has very little connection to Ice's original 1991 single, but rather talks about his appreciation of his fans, his love of performing at clubs and playing at the
Gathering of the Juggalos with
Insane Clown Posse.
Ninja Rap 2 was the first song to be released from
Platinum Underground and was available to download for free on Ice's official website. In 2007, Ice returned to a spin-off of
The Surreal Life titled
The Surreal Life: Fame Games, where he again trashed the set after being voted off. In September 2008, Ice signed a contract with
Cleopatra Records, recording the
cover album Vanilla Ice Is Back! at the label's request. The album was released on November 4, 2008, and contained covers of songs by
Public Enemy,
House of Pain,
Bob Marley, and
Cypress Hill.
IGN reviewer Spence D. called the album "an embarrassing endeavor that sounds like it should have stayed locked inside Ice's studio (or at the very least leaked on YouTube and passed off as a piss take)." On February 27, 2009, Ice performed as part of a joint performance with MC Hammer in
Orem, Utah, called "Hammer Pants And Ice", which featured twenty four dancers and a full choir.
Since 2009 In August 2009, Ice signed a contract with
StandBy Records; however, Ice later left the label. Ice was a special musical guest at the
2010 National Television Awards in January, performing with
Jedward for their remix and debut single "
Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)". Ice also recorded his verse for their album
Planet Jedward and appeared in the music video. He was a part of The Back2Kool concert tour with
Turbo B and MC Hammer, playing worldwide in late 2010, and reunited with his former DJ, Floyd 'Earthquake' Brown, for the shows overseas. In early 2011, Vanilla Ice appeared on the
sixth season of the UK show
Dancing on Ice, as well as various ice skating tours surrounding the show. In 2009, Ice started filming a reality television series called
The Vanilla Ice Project, which premiered on
DIY Network on October 14, 2010. The season was focused on renovating a house in Palm Beach, Florida, with each episode dedicated to a different room in the house. In the film, Ice portrays an exaggerated version of himself called Uncle Vanny. While shooting, he collaborated with Samberg and Sandler musically. In August, Ice performed at the 2011 Gathering of the Juggalos; he signed with
Psychopathic Records, but later departed from the label without releasing anything. His sixth studio album,
WTF, was released on August 19 through Radium Records. While the record featured an array of different styles, like other recent Vanilla Ice albums, it also featured Ice's return to
Electronica, with songs like "Turn It Up", "Rock Star Party", "Nightmare Disco" and "Cadillac Ninjas". Regarding the new record and its numerous musical genres, Ice said, "It's like techno hip-hop. European. I live a lot in Europe, and when I'm over there I get way into the techno stuff and I get into new music. So I thought I'd make a record of it. I did the thing and it was a lot of fun". In December 2011, Ice played Captain Hook in the
Chatham, Kent, Central Theatre pantomime production of
Peter Pan, a role that previously belonged to
Henry Winkler. He also turned on the Christmas lights for
Rochester, Kent, in
Rochester Castle, as part of the promotion for the panto. On May 12, 2012, Vanilla Ice helped in the launch of the
Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast roller coaster at
Six Flags over Texas in
Arlington with a free concert for valid daily park ticket or 2012 Season Pass holders. In mid-2013, Vanilla Ice joined the
New Kids on the Block tour alongside
Boyz II Men. On September 15, 2013, Vanilla Ice performed at the halftime show of a
Houston Texans game. Houston went on to lose the remaining fourteen games of the season, leading some players to blame Vanilla Ice for the losing streak. In the
Western comedy film
The Ridiculous Six, released in 2015, Ice portrayed
Mark Twain. He also had a non-speaking cameo in another
Netflix movie,
Sandy Wexler. In 2016, Vanilla Ice competed on
season 23 of
Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with professional dancer
Witney Carson. They were eliminated on October 4, 2016. On September 16, 2017, Vanilla Ice joined
Insane Clown Posse in a free concert, the
Juggalo March On Washington. Between 2015 and 2016, Vanilla Ice was one of the main headliners for the worldwide 'I Love the 90s Tour'. On January 4, 2019,
Dave Franco was cast to star as Ice in a biopic chronicling the rapper's life. of the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2023 On December 31, 2020, Ice was the star attraction at a New Year's Eve party at
President Trump's mansion
Mar-a-Lago. The President himself was unable to attend, but
Donald Trump Jr. captured Ice's performance on his cellphone. New Year's Eve 2020 was also the younger Trump's 43rd birthday. Notable attendees included Don Jr.'s girlfriend
Kimberly Guilfoyle,
Rudy Giuliani,
Sean Spicer and others. In June 2021, Ice narrated a
BBC Radio 5 Live documentary podcast about the theft of the racehorse
Shergar. ==Personal life==