Born Robert Van Winkle, Vanilla Ice has built up a reputation as a rapper, actor, and television host. He hails from Dallas Texas but resided in Florida. It was after signing a record deal with a division EMI called SBK Records that he released “To the Extreme” which broke the record of being the first hip-hop single that topped the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It also broke the record of being the fastest selling hip-hop album of all time, maintaining the top spot for a total of sixteen weeks. It has since gone Platinum in the UK and 7x Platinum in the US, and 6x Platinum in Canada. On the album featured the song “Ice Ice Baby” which went to number 1 in four countries, and achieved Platinum certification in US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. There was also the song “Play That Funky Music” which didn’t quite match the success of its predecessor, but it still made it into the top 20 of six charts internationally.
“Extremely Live” followed the release of this album on March 6th 1991, which made it to number 30 in the US and 35 in the UK, being certified Gold in Canada and the US. Despite the outstanding global success of “To the Extreme”, Vanilla Ice didn’t match the success of that album with any of his following five full-length album releases. Fortunately his song “Ice Ice Baby” has featured on many compilation albums since, and on Jedward’s cover of the song where Vanilla Ice featured on the song himself. The song made it to number 2 in the UK Chart.
The band were originally made up of producers Robert Clivillés and David Cole, who came together in the house acts 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican and The 28th Street Crew. The duo had chemistry, and in 1990, they got together to make the single “Get Dumb! (Free Your Body)” with frequent collaborator Freedom Williams, a rapper from their shared home town of New York City. The single resulted in a lawsuit for the producers, but they had such a good time making it that they decided to continue working together, enlisting the vocalists Selma Davis and Martha Walsh, along with Williams, to form what they would call the C+C Music Factory. By mid-1990, the band had finished their first album “Gonna Make You Sweat”, but no-one could have predicted just how successful the band would become.
“Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” was released in October of that year, and was an absolutely mind-boggling hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1991, when it had already become one of the most recognisable pop songs of its time. The single would eventually go on to be certified Platinum five times over, and achieved similar success in Canada and the United Kingdom. Understandably, this was as good as it was ever going to get for the band, as their second and third albums sank without a trace after their releases in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Tragically, Cole died in January 1995 and after the last singles for the band's self-titled final album were released in 1996, the band quietly split up. However, in 2010 Clivillés tapped Eric Kupper to form a new incarnation of C+C, and have been starting parties all around the globe ever since. For being the most fun you can have with your clothes on, C+C Music Factory come highly recommended.
Vanilla Ice has evolved into many things since his smash hit “Ice Ice Baby”. For a while he was nothing but a joke and then kind of a normal guy next door.
He has had reality shows and terrible movies over the years but the fact is there are tons of people who can still sign every word to that song more than 20 years after it was released. There are not a lot musicians or rappers who can say the same.
I saw him him in a small club in Florida. It was more of a guest appearance than an actual show. He jumped on the stage during a set and did 3-4 of his songs. Of course he did “Ice Ice Baby” but he also did some other ones from that album including his other radio song “ Play that Funky Music”. The crowd was really pumped to see him and it was a great surprise. Everyone knew the words to the song. He was not dressed up and looked like a normal guy this look was much better than the cheesy one that he had in the 1990’s and really suited him better. It was a fun experience.
I saw Rob Base perform along with the other half of his hip hop duo, DJ E-Z, where they opened the show with their massively successful track It Takes Two. They immediately got the audience singing along with them on the section ‘na na na na, na na na na’, and it was great to be involved with the performance so early in the show. Rob Base then went on to introduce the duo, and explained they they’d be performing their work together, as well as each taking a small set to perform their solo work.
Their DJ was solid, and was great at extending the tracks when the duo would stop and improvise sections of their songs, or get the audience to join in. Seeing DJ E-Z perform alongside Rob Base before his untimely death was something that I won’t ever forget, as the duo really rocked the show. They performed the It Takes Two album in its entirety chronologically, and I think it was one of the last performances they ever did of the album, and I have to say it was incredible.
Base also played some of his solo tracks, with E-Z rapping over the top, almost harmonising. Base’s work is original and lyrically strong, and the crowd went crazy for it. We were singing along, encouraged by E-Z, and everyone was dancing like mad. It was a great show, and hopefully Base will continue to produce wonderful music in memory of E-Z.
C+C music factory was an American Dance and HipHip group, which was pretty popular in 1989 and the early 90's. They released three studio albums, which were titled, Gonna make you sweat, anything goes, C+C music factory. They were a highly successful group, and their songs really made you get into their performances. In "Everybody Dance Now" their clothes are pretty cool looking, and they look cool. They get really into the songs, their voices sound very upbeat, and they are dancing all over the stage. The song really does make everybody wanna dance now. The raps added into the songs also really help to pump up the audience. There are parts in the song that prompt you to dance, such as "you better move it now", which really helps to get you into the music. It is just a very feel good music. The men in the performance typically have their shirts off to attract the women, and the beats just keep people wanting to move to the music. The songs are great, and it is not surprising that this group was so popular during their day! I think that these songs would even be popular today because they are so good.