 Fame
and Fortune: Vanilla Ice
Reality TV and real estate pad the rapper's
pockets
| Now clean and
sober, rap star Vanilla Ice is making money with music and mortgages.
Vanilla Ice, born Robert Van Winkle, had a meteoric
rise to fame in 1991, with his hit, "Ice Ice Baby," but
suffered an even quicker crash and burn. During that year, Vanilla
Ice was named as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful
People" and he was making $1 million per week for 15 weeks
off his album "To the Extreme." The album was nominated
for a Grammy.
Under pressure as a white rapper to gain street credibility,
his publicists put out the story that he attended an all-black high
school in the ghetto, when his real upbringing was in the suburbs.
Also, he was sued by David Bowie and the band Queen for using segments
of their recordings in his own without permission.
Vanilla Ice's career appeared to be over and his life,
as well. Consumed by depression, he attempted suicide in 1994, using
a combination of heroin (to which he was addicted), ecstasy and
cocaine. His internal struggle forced him to change everything in
his life. He turned away from music and got into motocross amateur
races, where he had excelled as a teenager. He also became a formidable
jet-skier. Vanilla Ice was not going to make big money in sports,
but he was cleaning up his life. He now has been married for more
than 10 years; the couple has two daughters.
Then, quietly, he started his music career again.
This time, Vanilla Ice would be in control of his music and his
image. His publicity schemes have been a little offbeat: he boxed
Todd Bridges for $50,000 and appeared on "The Surreal Life."
But by modern, post-Paris Hilton standards, the publicity stunts seem relatively
mild. Vanilla Ice has new CDs pouring out all the time, he's popular
again and he's making lots of money in the business world.
Bankrate talked to Vanilla Ice about the upswing in
his career and life. Bankrate:
You've been very public about your resentment of being a "packaged"
artist in the past. How did you come to be packaged in the first place? Vanilla
Ice: That came from not having anyone in front of me. Eminem can use me
as a guideline. I was only 16 when I started. My mom told me to get a real job,
to work at a barbecue joint. I mean, I like barbecue, but still! Now, she's a
big fan. She was a typical mom: "White kids don't rap! I'm not bailing you
out of jail again!" Everything happened so fast; I was on tour with Ice-T
and Sir Mix-A-Lot. My first record sold 48,000 copies. In 1991, I signed with
Capitol Records, selling a million records a week. To this day, my album is the
No. 1 debut record of all time. Bankrate:
You tried to kill yourself with $18 million in the bank. So, money isn't
everything. Vanilla Ice: I made
even more than that. No, the important things are family and friends. I learned
there is no escape route. Drugs only worked for a minute.
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