Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1968 in Miami Lakes, Florida), better known as Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, known today for the single "Ice Ice Baby" that topped the charts beginning in the early 1990s (see 1990 in music). At that time, he was also one of the very few successful white rappers.
Van Winkle's first foray into the music industry is the little-known album Hooked, released in 1989 on an independent label. Just 48,000 copies were sold, making it a rarity and something of a collector's item among fans.
His next album fared better: To the Extreme, released in 1990, contained mostly the same songs as Hooked. The album featured his best-known single, "Ice Ice Baby", an egocentric rap song which discusses his fame and talents. Van Winkle's manager and financier, Tommy Quon, shrewdly chose a limited release for the single, and no vinyl release for the album, so that fans bought the more expensive CD instead; this led to To The Extreme becoming the first #1 album without a vinyl counterpart release. It went on to sell over 11 million copies, making him arguably one of the most commercially successful rappers of his time.
But Van Winkle's success was met with problems. "Ice Ice Baby" had sampled the Queen and David Bowie collaboration " Under Pressure" without permission (the matter settled out of court) and he was also sued by Wild Cherry frontman, Rob Parissi, for not crediting him as the writer of Ice's cover of the disco classic, "Play that Funky Music."
Van Winkle's image also began to falter. His claims that he had attended an all-black high school and led a crime-riddled life were revealed to be false, and had been manufactured to lend his image street credibility; he had actually attended R. L. Turner High School in Carrollton, Texas. His flamboyant stage outfits and over-stylized grooming also eventually led to great ridicule. Van Winkle could not shake the perception that he embodied the white mainstream's commercial appropriation and watering down of traditionally African-American music, and the backlash from the hip hop community all but turned him into a pariah. Van Winkle has been mocked in other rappers' lyrics; for example by Eminem in D12's Purple Pills.
