KEEPING IT REAL
Vanilla Ice maintains his optimism

by James Keller

Starring in the Surreal Life last year with the likes of Ron Jeremy and Tammy Faye Baker, losing to Todd Bridges on Celebrity Boxing shortly before that, and still living off the fame the 1990 hit "Ice Ice Baby" might make a more cynical performer fear that his career is heading in the wrong direction. Fortunately, almost 15 years since To the Extreme topped the charts before unceremoniously disappearing from pop culture radar, Vanilla Ice is an optimist.

Born Robert Van Winkle, Vanilla Ice is still making records, even if he gave his music and image a facelift. His latest album, Bi-Polar , is a loud and abrasive combination of hip-hop and rock, not dissimilar from acts such as Slipknot, to which he repeatedly compares himself. Apparently, this style of music is more fitting for Ice, who blames the record industry for using him as a gimmick in the early '90s.

"I basically wanted to be myself and get away from the whole image-oriented, gimmick-oriented thing," he explains, complaining about the limitations imposed by contemporary radio. "You know, the radio, they have all these limitations, like if you advocate the use of marijuana, or you say a curse word. I'd rather keep it real."

This approach has given him a new audience, as well. He says the crowds at his shows are typically made up of younger listeners, an army of 16-year-olds that follows him from show to show.

"It's kind of an underground following. They're aware of ‘Ice Ice Baby' and the old school, but they're more into the new stuff," he explains. "I've got a big subculture following. It's a lot of carnie kids and they follow me around."

And how about the Surreal Life? Ice seems to grant it a level of credibility that most people might carelessly toss away. He says he enjoyed the experience, and that it showed the world a side of him they might not have been exposed to.

"I've been around the world, and it's like ‘I want to do something else that's an adventure.' I didn't know what to expect. I kind of like that," he says. "The response that I see has been great. It leads to other things, and people appreciate who I am today instead of harping on who I was yesterday."