Vanilla Ice, Hard To Swallow (1998, Republic)
What
do you do when you’ve suddenly become the biggest hip-hop star in the world?
This was the problem faced by Rob Van Winkle, better known as Vanilla Ice,
after the release of his 1990 breakthrough single Ice Ice Baby. Van Winkle’s infectious party jam sold millions of
copies and was the first hip-hop single to top the Billboard charts, leaving
the world in eager anticipation for what would come next. However, the rapper
failed to produce anything that resonated with the public as strongly as his
debut single, leading many to quickly dismiss him as merely a ‘novelty act’.
After
years trying to replicate the success of Ice
Ice Baby, Van Winkle decided to try a different approach: he would
radically reinvent himself, taking the classic hip-hop sound of his earlier
work and fusing it with heavy metal, creating the genre known today as ‘rap-metal.’
This heavier sound allowed Van Winkel to explore darker themes, such as his
abusive childhood and drug addiction, all of which appear on his groundbreaking
1998 album Hard to Swallow.
The
album sees Van Winkle lashing out at those who claimed he was nothing but a
one-hit wonder: “Fuck you, there ain’t nothing you can do / You whack bastard,
there ain’t nothing you can do” he raps on the powerful (yet confusingly-titled)
Fuck Me. But there are some tender
moments hidden amongst the aggression: “Whatcha tryin’ to do, make the Ice
melt? / Don’t you know my cream is good for your health?” he coos on sensual
slow-jam The Horny Song.
Hard to Swallow cemented Van Winkle’s place as a serious
recording artist and allowed him to finally escape the shadow of Ice Ice Baby. He even included a
heavy-metal version of that very song on the album, to prove how far he’d come
since then, or something. Sadly, this was not enough to revive Van Winkel’s
flagging career, and while he has continued to release albums, including 2001’s
excellent Hot Sex and the upcoming WTF (scheduled for release this month),
he has largely been forgotten outside of his one big hit. But like it or not,
this ‘novelty act’ has been responsible for paving the way for some of the
greatest rap-metal groups of our time – such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park –
so you have to give him credit for that, even if you find it a little hard to swallow.
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