The chorus of "Ice Ice Baby" originates from the signature chant of the national African American fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. The lyrics describe a drive-by shooting and Van Winkle's rhyming skills. Robert Van Winkle, better known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, wrote "Ice Ice Baby" at the age of 16, basing its lyrics upon his experiences in South Florida. Topping the Australian, Dutch, Irish, Italian and UK charts, the song helped diversify hip hop by introducing it to a mainstream audience. "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts. When a disc jockey played "Ice Ice Baby" instead, it began to gain success.
"Ice Ice Baby" was initially released as the B-side to Van Winkle's cover of "Play That Funky Music", but the single was not initially successful. It has appeared in remixed form on Platinum Underground and Vanilla Ice Is Back! A live version appears on the album Extremely Live, while a rap rock version appears on the album Hard to Swallow, under the title "Too Cold".
Originally released on Van Winkle's 1989 debut album Hooked and later on his 1990 national debut To the Extreme, it is his most famous and popular song. The song samples 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. Just for fun, here is the video of Vanilla Ice clearly explaining the difference between the two songs, I’ll let you be the judge."Ice Ice Baby" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice (real name Robert Matthew Van Winkle) and DJ Earthquake. This is the story of when the rock legends Queen came to co-write and earn royalties on a 90’s rap phenomenon. The last straw in this story was the now infamous interview of Vanilla Ice trying to defend his song by claiming the base line was similar but not actually ripped off, due to an extra note added to the last down beat of the line, making it “two entirely different bass lines”. Ironically, Ice Ice Baby gave a sudden rise in popularity to the original Under Pressure track as younger generations discovered it through the rapper. What started as a simple sampling issue, stained the reputation of the rapper. The amount was not revealed until much later, the sum of 4 million in USD was payed to the band Queen along with writing credits for the 4 members on the song. Thankfully for Vanilla Ice, the case did not end up going to court and got settled in private. However, the origin of the sample and the artists responsible were not given credits and therefore earned no royalties. The American rapper tried to defend himself, pleading that it was nothing more than sampling, a very common practice in the rap industry. The band’s lawyers got involved and quickly threatened to sue Vanilla Ice for copyright infringement. The similarity is undeniable to anyone listening to both songs and seeing the popularity and money that Ice Ice baby was generating, Queen was not going to let it slide. A small rock English rock band by the name of Queen saw in the bass line a very obvious rip off of their own song, co written and co performed with The singer David Bowie, Under Pressure. However, not everybody felt over the moon with the new rap single and its explosion in popularity. The single climbed to the top of the charts in 10 countries including the UK Singles chart and the US Billboard 100. The track in question is the infamous “Ice Ice Baby.”
On it, a track that would later on become his most famous hit, turning the singer into an internet laughing stock by the same occasion. On the 22nd of August 1990, Vanilla Ice released his debut album “To the Extreme”.
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