If, like me, you are of a certain age, then the name Vanilla Ice is something that usually leads to much sniggering and smirking. Add to the fact that his real name is actually Rob Van Winkle and shit gets a whole lot funnier.
Having said that, I don’t know of any Caucasian male that didn’t break some moves in front of the mirror whilst lip synching to ‘Ice Ice Baby’ in the hope that it somehow made us as brown as a brown mans cape, just like our mates who loved rap. Hell I even know a few of the brothers who did the very same thing.
He may have cut like a razor blade and sliced like a ninja but cool he wasn’t; at least not when you saw him. There’s that old joke that everyone was into Vanilla Ice until they found out he was white and then no one, least of all the black dudes, admitted to having ever been into him in the first place.
Because a middle class white boy singing about a drive by didn’t really cut it in terms of street cred back then, but those crackers doing so today – with some considerable success – really do owe Vanilla Ice a huge vote of thanks for breaking the ground for them. Ridiculed he might be, but you would be hard pressed to disprove that he started a movement.
Of course with great success came great temptation and Ice used and abused with the best of them. Eventually he turned his back on pursuing just a musical career and returned to his original love and area of promise; extreme motor sports like motocross and jet skiing, something he had considerable success with by all accounts. For real!
Along the way Ice took to getting involved in home improvement and real estate, which leads me to the point of this blog. That interest got turned into a reality show ‘The Vanilla Ice Project’ where he and his crew flip a destitute Palm Beach house into a million dollar resale, something that he’s been doing regularly for the last ten years.
He’s even written a book on how to invest in real estate and you just know it’s got to be good because ff there was a problem yo he'll solve it, check out the hook while his DJ revolves it.
The Project is in essence, a home improvement show and god knows there’s enough of them fuckers, but its Vanilla Ice y’all and he brings to it all the hollahs and jive talk one would expect from a white man who’s spent most of his adult life in the world of rappers and...shit.
It makes for some great TV when the guys doing the reno turn up in a Rolls Royce and a hot rod truck, amongst other bangin’ rides. In one episode Rob takes matters into his own hands and blasts out the dilapidated pool, puts down a sweet patio and installs some unexpected, but killer features like Tiki torches and a fire bowl. He makes it rock’n’roll when others just make it.
Yep, Ice and his crew put the "sweet" back into the master suite alright. It’s funny yet imminently watchable at the same time. Ice comes across as very articulate and with a real sense of energy and cost conservation in his work.
Trust me, as the man himself would say with gangsta hand gestures, it’s worth a late night watch even if you didn’t listen to Ice Ice Baby like a million times and I know you did. We all fucken did.
So check it; The Vanilla Ice Project, my new favorite show and my latest man love moment.
Hollah!
