Oooh, who can forget him? The white boy with the solidly gelled-up hairdo and the raised eyebrow, making strange signs with his fingers (doesn’t it look strangely like the Vulcan welcome gesture?) and making everyone suddenly start thinking rap is cool and clean fun?
(Sidenote: This is the second in the start-stop series of Anyone Remember… series, where I reminiscent about some forgotten star of the 80’s and 70’s. The first one was Milli Vanilli. Boy, was that a good one…! End of sidenote.)
In 1990-91, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was everywhere, man. My neighbour was so into it, he went out and bought the tape, and played it at full volume on his boombox (to the annoyance of his grandmother), while he tried to keep up with the lyrics in the liner notes.
Speaking of lyrics, Ice Ice Baby has got to be a poetic masterpiece. Who else can come up rhymes like (my comments in red):
- “Something grabs a hold of me tightly , Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly” (WHO uses a harpoon 24 hours a daily? Captain Ahab?!)
- “To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal , Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle” (what’s a chump? And what’s it doing waxing a candle?)
- “I’m cooking MC’s like a pound of bacon, Burning them if you ain’t quick and nimble” eight balls?! no comment…)
Yes, yes, its one of those things from the 80’s that is unbelievably corny like shoulder pads and Teen Wolf.
Below: shoulder pads.
Below: Teen Wolf!
My friend Ray told me he tried to record a cover version with a few other friends once. To get the sound effects in the opening bars, they put some rice grains in a glass bottle, and used the cymbals on the church drums. Then you can imagine a Malaysian Chinese ah beng trying to rap like Vanilla Ice (yeah, I know it sounds funny) going, “Rolling, in 5.0, with the rag top up so my hair can blow…â€
If that copy of the cover version survived to this day, I bet Ray could make some good money for it on eBay. Or at least on YouTube.
Anyways, Vanilla Ice made it big for being the first white guy to hit it (as opposed to the black rappers of the day like Run DMC and er, MC Hammer…), and with hooks sampled from Queen and Bowie, rose dramatically, and sank equally fast after that.
Vanilla Ice and his ‘Ice Ice Baby’ lives on in those flashback shows on VH1 every week, not to mention on the receiving end of jokes by late night show comedians.
Some years ago, I heard that he grew dreadlocks and ran a motorbike shop. On the cold winter nights, when the bike shop is closed and everyone has left, I wonder if he clears the workspace, and trace back that kicking dance move as the cranked up PA system goes:
“Dum-dum-Dum-dum-duh dum-dum, Alright, stop, collaborate and listen…”
[tags]Vanilla Ice, Ice ice baby, MTV, music, Queen[/tags]
13 Comments
Giant Sotong
I had a schoolmate who used to be nuts about him, to the point of wanting to shave his eyebrows like VI did. Being a Chinese, that no-no upset his grandmother.
ShaolinTiger
Hahaha, yeah stop collaborate and listen, ice is back with a brand new invention!
I used to know all the words too, I bought his album on casette and used to listen to it at school in the back of class whilst rapping to the lines from the cover.
The rest of the songs were shite though, stop this train was ok, that was about it.
Sashi
I actually thought Stop The Train was laughable. “Stoppp Thaaa Traaaaain, I Wanna Get Offfffff…”
LOL!
lilian
I remember Prince more. Are they of the same era?
sexymama
Except for the lyrics, which I can’t figure out other than “ice ice baby”, that song has a pretty good rhythm.
lucia
i remember him and only remember this one song of him. don’t know the lyrics though but just know how to go “ice, ice, baby. ice, ice, baby”. 🙂
Naz
When my office had our teambuilding karaoke session, we were all trying our best to “out-cheesy” each other.
I chose Ice Ice Baby for my team, and needless to say, we won.
(I can proudly say I did the second verse without looking at the monitor)
consuela
omigosh….so the pai-seh but I admit; me and my girl-friends had a special dance to that song! LOL!I liked it as long as it lasted but it was so overplayed on the radio stations! 🙂
and his hairstyle!!!
Offline Geek
Vanilla ice had released his debut album few years ago. In fact, he had a MTV production documentary show – a very short one, he expressed that he didn’t actually like the past image he had of himself. This singer-rapper in fact has a serious attitude problem. If someone sings ice-ice-baby song in front of him, he’ll definitely whack him/her badly.
Shame on him.
anjali*
I prefer the original “Under Pressure” anytime ler…
Pat
Got a bonus for you – a dvd of 1000 songs from the 80’s
simon
giant sotong – hmmm. i remember the shaved eyebrows. and the gelled up hair.
shaolintiger – i think most of my friends who bought the tape got it for that one song, and never listened to the rest after the first spin!
sashi – he had another song, er, i think it was “my 5.0” refering to his car, i think…
lilian – yes, prince the same time. but he’s a miserable git.
sexymama & lucia – yep, he only had one famous song. itu pun copy from people one.
naz – DEFINITELY a cheesy song. i can only go as far as the first verse without looking.
consuela – ahem, how did this dance go..? 🙂
offline geek – i heard about that show. Apparently, he was supposed to appear and smash his own CD, but after too much derision from the hosts, he apparently attacked them!
anjali – old school! i loved that song too.
Pat – thanks!
dickard
Speaking of Teen Wolf…
Buddy of mine got his hands on a script for a potential new project…
TEEN WOLF 3
Dickard’s Blog