Ice Ice Baby

ICE ICE BABY
 
 
“Ice Ice Baby”  is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake.  It was based on the bassline of “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, who did not initially receive songwriting credit or royalties until after it had become a hit.  Originally released on Vanilla Ice’s 1989 debut album Hooked and later on his 1990 national debut To the Extreme, it is his best known song.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Everyone but Judy Molish had previously been in a band called Butt Trumpet – with similar sensibility though not all-female – along with vocalist Thom Bone and drummer Jerry Geronimo. Betty Blowtorch was formed in 1998, and while not exactly a pose, their brand of sex-obsessed punk is clearly performed with a wink at the audience – their first single, “Size Queen” has guest musician Vanilla Ice (“Ice Ice Baby”) rapping about the size of his member – and also has surprising professionalism. After their full-length album, Are You Man Enough? came out in 2001, Betty Blowtorch began touring with the hard rock/psychobilly band Nashville Pussy.
 
(June 2016)
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The same issue came up with the Vanilla Ice hit song Ice Ice Baby (1990) that was released on the heels of “U Can’t Touch This, where in this case the sample was taken from “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie.  Robert Van Winkle (Vanilla Ices real name) wrote Ice Ice Baby in 1983 when he was 16 years old.
 
Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice took a lot of heat at the time and in later years for not being authentic, etc.  I don’t have a dog in that fight myself; I found Ice Ice Baby then and I find it now to be a well crafted piece of music.  Whatever else might be said about Ice Ice Baby, as noted by Wikipedia:  “‘Ice Ice Baby’ was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts.  Outside the United States, the song topped the charts in AustraliaBelgiumthe NetherlandsNew Zealandthe Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom, thus helping the song diversify hip hop by introducing it to a mainstream audience.”
 
(September 2016)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021