Spring Break
Vanilla Ice to perform at Hall
By: Ben Johnson
Issue date: 9/3/08 Section: News
The American music industry abounds with various anomalies from foreign sensations to bizarre remixes and cover bands. But perhaps the most renowned and even dreaded of The Billboard's Seven Circles of Infamy is the "One Hit Wonder." While the single itself often goes down in the annals of musical history, the artists often fall by the wayside or are simply remembered as the band or artist that "did that one song."
This is not to be the path of Robert Matthew Van Winkle - the artist known as Vanilla Ice.
Van Winkle began his unique trek to fame in the streets of Dallas as a breakdancer. It was in this arena that Van Winkle earned his infamous moniker: Vanilla Ice. As a small-time artist, Van Winkle played downtown nightclubs and was a warm-up act to such rap heavy weights as Public Enemy and M.C. Hammer.
It was in a Georgia nightclub in 1990 that the DJ decided to flip Van Winkle's then floundering single album over and play the B-side track: simply tagged "Ice, Ice Baby." The rest is history.
The track jumped to the top of the charts (despite out-of-court legal conflicts that the song alledgedly ripped off the melody of Queen's "Under Pressure") and has gone down in music history, both as a one-hit-wonder and the occasional guilty-pleasure-music-party appearance.
What began in 1990 has followed a multi-faceted and dark path to 2008. One of the stops on that path is The Texas Hall of Fame in Bryan this Wednesday. Along with DJ Get Low, Vanilla Ice will "light up the stage and rock the mic like a vandal" at 11:30 p.m.
Attendees should prepare for a different kind of performance. He's changed his tune from the hip-hop beats he laid down in the 90s.
"I never tried to reinvent myself," Van Winkle said. "I just try to be myself. I always have. The whole music industry is artificial. From American Idol to artists who don't even write their own material any more, it's all the same. Music shouldn't be about gimmicks or image, it should be about the music."
This is not to be the path of Robert Matthew Van Winkle - the artist known as Vanilla Ice.
Van Winkle began his unique trek to fame in the streets of Dallas as a breakdancer. It was in this arena that Van Winkle earned his infamous moniker: Vanilla Ice. As a small-time artist, Van Winkle played downtown nightclubs and was a warm-up act to such rap heavy weights as Public Enemy and M.C. Hammer.
It was in a Georgia nightclub in 1990 that the DJ decided to flip Van Winkle's then floundering single album over and play the B-side track: simply tagged "Ice, Ice Baby." The rest is history.
The track jumped to the top of the charts (despite out-of-court legal conflicts that the song alledgedly ripped off the melody of Queen's "Under Pressure") and has gone down in music history, both as a one-hit-wonder and the occasional guilty-pleasure-music-party appearance.
What began in 1990 has followed a multi-faceted and dark path to 2008. One of the stops on that path is The Texas Hall of Fame in Bryan this Wednesday. Along with DJ Get Low, Vanilla Ice will "light up the stage and rock the mic like a vandal" at 11:30 p.m.
Attendees should prepare for a different kind of performance. He's changed his tune from the hip-hop beats he laid down in the 90s.
"I never tried to reinvent myself," Van Winkle said. "I just try to be myself. I always have. The whole music industry is artificial. From American Idol to artists who don't even write their own material any more, it's all the same. Music shouldn't be about gimmicks or image, it should be about the music."
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