Vanilla Ice

Robert Matthew Van Winkle born October 31 1967 known professionally by his stage name Vanilla Ice is an American rapper actor and television personality Born in Dallas Texas and raised in Texas and South Florida he released his debut album Hooked in 1989 through Ichiban Records before signing a contract with SBK Records which released a reformatted version of the album in 1990 under the title To the Extreme which became the fastestselling hip hop album of all time and contained Ices bestknown hits Ice Ice Baby and a cover of Play That Funky Music Ice Ice Baby was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts and has been credited with helping to diversify hip hop by introducing it to a mainstream audience In late 1990 Ice began an eightmonth relationship with Madonna and appeared in photographs for her book Sex In April 1991 Ice began to film the SBKproduced 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 638000 ranking at 14 among the weeks new releases Reviews of the film were negative and he received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star Although he was successful he later regretted his business arrangements with SBK which had paid him to adopt a more commercial appearance and had published fabricated biographical information without his knowledge 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 He was inspired to change his musical style and lifestyle While his later albums havent charted or featured much radio airplay because of their less mainstream rockoriented sound he has a loyal underground following His return to music in 1998 Hard to Swallow went gold while his other releases BiPolar and Platinum Underground have done well Uncertain about his future career Ice studied real estate and started working on the side renovating and selling houses In late 1995 he set up a recording studio in Miami and joined a grunge band Pickin Scabz In 2009 he began hosting The Vanilla Ice Project a home renovation show in Florida on DIY Network In 2011 Ice published a book on the subject Vanilla Ice Project Real Estate Guide on how to succeed in real estate In June 2011 he filmed a role in the movie Thats My Boy starring Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg His sixth studio album WTF Wisdom Tenacity and Focus was released on August 19 2011 through Radium Records While the record featured an array of different styles like other recent Vanilla Ice albums it also featured Ices return to Electronica In 2016 Vanilla Ice competed on season 23 of Dancing with the Stars He was partnered with professional dancer Witney Carson On January 4 2019 Dave Franco was cast to star as Ice in a biopic chronicling the rappers life Description above from the Wikipedia article Vanilla Ice licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia