Ep: 18 The Wackest Famous Rapper Part 1 #fromdajump

From The Jump

Show notes:

Syl: Vanilla ice was actually from Dallas

MW: Even being in that space took a certain amount of courage

Syl: He was the only white dude in that club! There wasn’t a dispersement

he was the only white dude there!

MW: hahaha

Syl: his haircut Idk what to call it

MW: It was the 80s cut, quintessential late 80s he was into

the culture it wasn’t like he was just enamored he lived in that urban

area and was comfortable with that vibe at that time

if you look at how he came up no one looked at him as a fraud

Syl: well he was a dancer and a rapper far far far across a distant

ocean 2nd.

Dj Earthquake was part of the scene at the Club City Lights

Vanilla ice on a dare from a friend of his entered the competition

he started beat boxing and dancing them moves and wow’d people

MW: He was doing hip hop busking being in the mall rapping, beat boxing

and when u say cultural appropriation I would say he appreciated

the culture. Up to that moment of getting on stage he took it seriously

at that time…just like to the average listener when it comes to music

or art they don’t understand it they just say i can’t do that

SYL and back in that daay hip hop was a subculture there wasn’t a cross

over i mean Run DMC and Aerosmeith had their crossover

The thing was people don’t realize the backstory about Vanilla Ice

he was already being recognized winning moto contests getting recognized

MW he was a serious dude, even tho he seems kind of corny

he has a certain demeanor and charisma, when we talk about it-factors

he has that and when other people think he is kind of corny to himself

he’s the shit and for a while he was a shit

Syl: He opened for MC Hammer 2 Live Crew

MW: That’s a perfect comparison he’s like a white MC Hammer

Syl he opened for Public Enemy in the 89 tour, PE wanted to sign

Vanilla Ice - you don’t hear about this

MW: Bestie boys got signed for a reason they wanted to exploit that

at that time you coudln’t perofrm for a white audience hip hop wasn’t at

that level yet…MC Hammer was one of those acts that could cross

over to white crowds. PE wasn’t exactly a cross over but they struck

a chord to the pooint where they became a major group…white pple listened to them

Syl: because it was political, audience it was more relevant to white

audiences than I grew up in the projects

MW you talkin about social issues

Syl right

and when you look at this kinda one of the hidden features of why

Ice popped out. It actually goes back to audio engineering

It goes back to the development of how hip hop was created

And Vanilla Ice wouldn’t have popped off at that moment in time

if we didn’t have the introduction of the SP1200 ans the Akai MPC

which allowed for a quantum leap of sampling and what was happening

was DJ Earthquake ReSampled Queen’s UnderPressure which Vanilla Ice

had to pay royalities on like 85% later on for that hook but that allowed the cross

over to Queens fans whether or not they realized it consciosuly it sounded familiar

MW: It’s interesting because previously Hip hop in itself is a sample music b/c even taking breakbeats from soul and funk In its essence hip hop started as a sampling muisic

But they type of stuff they are sampling isn’t whole songs til that good times track came out then they start3ed ripping whole loops

That was hard to do back then they talk about a band coming in having to play that whole position of that funk song live to record that

That MPC made it so you could chop up those loops I personally own one

it’s 1 of the greatest tools in hip hop

So he could the sample threw some drum beats on it it was kind of a fluke

like most musical steps no one was sampling white music like that

. . .

Syl: the music video didn’t come out when the song came out

the video was filmed in Deep Ellum in Dallas not far from Austin, Texas

and no one knew he was white until the video came out imagine

the whip lash

. . .

MW i think the things that he went thru are skewed to the perspective

if you live in a suburban area…let me put it like this way I wanted

to play football one year..it costs $110 My mother couldn’t pay the fee

I worked at subway so i could pay the equipment fee

when we talk about moto cross it cost money for the bike

cost money to get to the events, where did that money come from

are you telling me Vanilla Ice was rich at 16? Maybe not but he had

access to wealth

Syl: It was Dallas Morning News that started taking Vanilla Ice down

when they started saying wait hold up lets look at this

You went to school with 2 Live Crew? No that was a lie

You won 1000s of trophies for Team Honda? Morray has reported that is

a lie

MW: It’s a lie

Syl: you did NOT win 1000s of trophies for moto cross competitions so

this fictional biography…rappers exaggerate

MW: in his defense he didn’t want the bio released he didn’t write it up

and he didn’t think it was going to be a big deal..but authenticity in hip hop is

a big deal like..

Syl: I think the nail in the coffin for that particular article was revealing

his gov name was Robert Van Winkle which is not a rapper name haha

now if he went with a humpty dumpty approach and went with MC Van Winkle

maybe he could have got something on a school house rock levelgoing on

MW: That was the thing he was being marketed to be sold better…The way they dressed him up and paraded He was talented in his own right…he wasn’t the worst rapper of all time

Syl: who is the worst rapper of all time?

MW: Idk just because it’s generic…

Syl: The Source followed up with hip hop being too white washed saying unless it’s poppy it wasn’t going to hit

MW: that’s the way they had to introduce hip hop to a white audience

black people did records that were considered too raunchy and were redone

by white people to sound more white to sound more polite it’s sad to see

that happen and sad to see that happen in a new culture you’ve created..

it’s like they are trying to snatch our culture away from us once again

and try to tell us you can’t be popular doing this thing

we’re going to create a version of this that is safe and clean

altho Vanilla ice was kind of a B boy rapper a drug dealer in the hood

From Da Jump

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