Vanilla Ice Bio
Robert Matthew Van Winkle, known professionally as Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, actor, and television host. Born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Miami, Florida, he became the first solo white rapper to achieve major commercial success following the 1990 release of his hit single “Ice Ice Baby” and the album To the Extreme, which became the fastest-selling hip hop album of its time. After early mainstream fame and controversies over his image and business arrangements, he explored rock and nu-metal releases, acted in the film Cool as Ice (1991), and later moved into real-estate renovation and reality television.
Early Life and Background
Robert Matthew Van Winkle was born in Dallas, Texas, on October 31, 1967. He has never known his biological father; he was given the family name of the man his mother was married to at the time of his birth. When Van Winkle was four, his mother divorced, and afterward he grew up moving between Dallas and Miami, where his new stepfather worked at a car dealership. Van Winkle was affected by hip hop at an early age, and between the ages of 13 and 14, he practiced breakdancing, which led to his friends nicknaming him “Vanilla” since he was the only one in the group who was not black. Although he disliked the nickname, it stuck, and he later became known as “MC Vanilla” before settling on the stage name Vanilla Ice, a combination of his nickname and a breakdance move called “The Ice.”
When his stepfather was offered a better job in Carrollton, Texas, he moved back to Texas with his mother. As a teenager, Ice wrote “Ice Ice Baby” at the age of 16, basing its lyrics on a weekend with his friend and disc jockey D-Shay in South Florida. He attended R. L. Turner High School in Texas, and during his teenage years he also trained as a street performer with his breakdancing group, now called The Vanilla Ice Posse.
Path to Music
Vanilla Ice began his professional music career in 1985, initially focusing on motocross, where he won three championships. After breaking his ankle during a race, he used his spare time to perfect his dance moves, and began beatboxing and breakdancing as a street performer with his friends at local malls. One evening he visited City Lights, a South Dallas nightclub, where he was dared to go on stage during an open-mic, and he won the crowd over. Ice was soon asked to perform regularly at the venue, and as part of The Vanilla Ice Posse, he opened for major acts including N.W.A, Public Enemy, The D.O.C., Tone Loc, 2 Live Crew, Paula Abdul, Sinbad, and MC Hammer.
In January 1987, Ice was stabbed five times during a scuffle outside of City Lights, and after spending ten days in the hospital, he signed a contract with the club’s owner, Tommy Quon, and his management company, Ultrax. Two years later, Ice opened for EPMD, Ice-T, Stetsasonic, and Sir Mix-A-Lot on the Stop the Violence Tour, and his manager Quon saw commercial potential in his rapping and dancing skills. Buying studio time with Quon’s earnings, they recorded songs that had been perfected on stage, and the two-year production was distributed by an independent record company called Ichiban Records in 1989.
Vanilla Ice Career
Early Career (1985–1989)
Vanilla Ice’s debut album, Hooked, was released on the independent Ichiban Records in 1989. The album’s first single was “Play That Funky Music,” 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 he was hoping for. The song gained a quick fanbase when disc jockey Darrell Jaye in Georgia played “Ice Ice Baby” instead of the single’s A-side, and other radio stations followed suit. Quon financed $8,000 for the production of a music video for “Ice Ice Baby,” which received heavy airplay by The Box, increasing public interest in the song.
Following the success of the single, Ice signed a contract with SBK Records in 1990. SBK remixed and re-recorded Hooked under the title To the Extreme, releasing a reformatted version that contained new artwork and music. SBK paid Ice to adopt a more commercial, conventional appearance, which led him to later regret his business agreements with the label. To the Extreme became the fastest-selling hip hop album of its time, spending sixteen weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and selling eleven million copies, while “Ice Ice Baby” became the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts.
Breakthrough (1990–1992)
Vanilla Ice achieved international fame with the release of To the Extreme, which produced hit singles “Ice Ice Baby” and “Play That Funky Music.” Reviews of the album were mixed, with Entertainment Weekly giving it a B and citing “Ice Ice Baby,” “Play That Funky Music,” “Dancin’” and “It’s a Party” as the album’s highlights. In late 1990, Ice began an eight-month relationship with Madonna, and appeared in photographs for her book, Sex. In January 1991, he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, and he branched out into the film industry with an appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, where he performed “Ninja Rap,” which he co-wrote.
Ice’s second major release was the live album Extremely Live, released in March 1991, a live recording during his To The Extreme World Tour in Miami. The album peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 but received mainly negative reviews, with Entertainment Weekly reviewer David Browne calling it “one of the most ridiculous albums ever released.” In April 1991, Ice began to film the SBK produced Cool as Ice, in which he played a leading role alongside Naomi Campbell, and the film opened on October 18, 1991, in 393 theaters in the United States, grossing $638,000. Reviews of the film were negative, and Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 8%, while Ice received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star.
Notable Works and Milestones
Vanilla Ice’s signature work remains To the Extreme (1990), the fastest-selling hip hop album of its time, anchored by “Ice Ice Baby,” the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts. He also released the live album Extremely Live (1991) and scored a major film role in Cool as Ice (1991) before earning a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star for that performance.
Vanilla Ice Award Nominations
Vanilla Ice has received nominations across a range of ceremonies throughout his career, including the American Music Awards, Grammy Awards, People’s Choice Awards, Kids’ Choice Awards, Soul Train Music Awards, and The Factual Entertainment Awards, as well as the Golden Raspberry Awards, where his nomination for Worst New Star followed the release of Cool as Ice in 1991.
Vanilla Ice Awards Won
Vanilla Ice has been recognized with one verified award win over the course of his career, a Golden Raspberry Award tied to his work in the early 1990s film industry.
Vanilla Ice Family
Vanilla Ice has never known his biological father; he was given the family name of the man his mother was married to at the time of his birth. When Van Winkle was four, his mother divorced, and afterward he grew up moving between Dallas and Miami, where his new stepfather worked at a car dealership. In 2013, Ice stated that he has Choctaw heritage through his maternal grandmother, though a 2015 genealogical review found his maternal genealogy to be mostly German, with no verifiable Choctaw ancestry.
Personal Life
Vanilla Ice dated Madonna for eight months in 1991–1992. Ice married Laura Giaritta in 1997, and they have two daughters, Dusti Rain (born 1998) and KeeLee Breeze (born 2000). In 2016, Ice’s wife filed for divorce, saying that the marriage was “irretrievably broken,” and in 2018, he welcomed his third daughter. By 2012, Ice had been a vegetarian for six years, and he describes himself as a “Juggalo,” a fan of Psychopathic Records hip hop groups.