Damn you, VH-1. Damn you for making me interested in an artist
\nlike Vanilla Ice by showing he’s human, just like the rest of
\nus.<\/p>\n
If it hadn’t been for your “Behind The Music” show featuring his
\ncareer, I would have been happy enough with my critical drubbing of<\/p>\n
Hard To Swallow<\/i>, and would never have had the inkling to
\ncheck out anything else by Rob Van Winkle. But, no, you had to
\nspark something in my brain that made me dig through my wife’s
\ntapes and grab her copy of
\nTo The Extreme<\/i>, Ice’s major-label debut and juggernaut to a
\nbrief flirtation with the high life.<\/p>\n
Actually, I once was very familiar with this album. I had no
\nchoice; I was cabling with my father at his side job, and the
\nowners of the building played that goddamn CD nonstop. (My father
\nis not a man prone to violence, but I think even he was ready to
\nsee if a CD could fit up a certain body cavity.) After five hours
\nof nothing but “Ice Ice Baby,” I was ready to jump out the
\nwindow… or at least I would have sent that boombox hurtling
\ntowards the pavement. (Insert sound effect of boombox falling:
\n“Ice, ice, babbbbeeee…….”.)<\/p>\n
Now that I’m older and have achieved a more Zen-like nature, I
\ncould approach the album without breaking out the lead gloves and
\nsalad tongs. And – you’re not going to believe what I’m about to
\nsay – but the album isn’t as wretched as we all would like to
\nbelieve. It’s no masterpiece – far from it, in fact. But it does
\nhave some brief moments.<\/p>\n
The whole schtick of Ice’s act, of course, is that he’s a white
\nboy performing the rhymes that normally were not done by
\nCaucasians. The problem is that Ice flaunts his whiteness, as
\nevidenced in songs like “Play That Funky Music” (featuring the
\nsignature lick from the Wild Cherry hit of the same name). Okay,
\nIce, so you’re white; big honkin’ deal. Artists like Snow and 3rd
\nBass were white, and look where they’ve ended up without bragging
\nabout the color of their skin. (Hey, wait a minute… uh, scratch
\nthat last thought.)<\/p>\n
The centerpiece is the mega-hit “Ice Ice Baby,” which did more
\nfor overexposure than New Coke did for soft drinks. Looking back
\nnine years after the song’s glory days, it’s not that bad, though
\nthere are early images of Ice’s flirtation with a style of gangsta
\nrap. I’ll give him credit, though, he minimizes it, and he’s not
\ntalking about “bitches” and “hoes” on
\nTo The Extreme<\/i>.<\/p>\n
That’s not to say that Ice isn’t thinking about things like sex;
\n“Life Is A Fantasy” is a wet dream put to music… a tamer 2 Live
\nCrew, if you will (if there is such a thing). It’s a bit
\nsophomoric; like I’ve always believed, if you’re singing about how
\nyou’re getting parallel all the time, chances are you’re not
\ngettin’ much lovin’.<\/p>\n
Where
\nTo The Extreme<\/i> succeeds is as a party album. “Ice Ice Baby”
\nis a song that is a mood lifter for your backyard jamboree (so long
\nas the other guests don’t hit you over the head with the
\nturntable), while other tracks like “Dancin'” and “It’s A Party”
\nare better suited for the lighter moments of life than a rap album,
\nno matter what its focus is.<\/p>\n
But there are mistakes on
\nTo The Extreme<\/i> – and, to Ice’s defense, other groups were
\nmaking the same mistakes around the same time. “I Love You” is a
\nfailed attempt at a soul track, while “Rosta Man” is a pitiful dip
\ntowards reggae – something 2 Live Crew was just as guilty of on
\nAs Nasty As They Wanna Be<\/i>. I mean, c’mon, you’re either rap
\nor reggae.<\/p>\n
If anything,
\nTo The Extreme<\/i> could be seen as a bit of a guilty pleasure.
\nI can stand “Ice Ice Baby” every once in a while, though I can’t
\nsee myself tooling down the Tri-State with the windows down,
\nhead-bopping to this one a la
\nA Night At The Roxbury<\/i>. And although it’s weird as hell, I
\ncan’t help liking “Havin’ A Roni” (someone wanna explain what this
\nis supposed to mean?); it’s a bizarre end to a disc spotlighting a
\nbizarre career.<\/p>\n
Chances are, if you were in your teens or early twenties in
\n1990, you’ve got a copy of
\nTo The Extreme<\/i> floating around the living room. While it’s
\nnot an album I would want to leave on the coffee table, it does
\nhave a few moments that showed talent that Ice had. Go ahead, dig
\nit out and give it one more spin. It’s as dangerous as dancing
\naround in your underwear – and just as embarassing if you get
\ncaught.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6337],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39267","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-vanilla-ice","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39267"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39267"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}