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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.
It might surprise you to know that even Color Me Badd, an outfit that on the surface seem utterly tailor made, actually formed naturally. The original line-up of Bryan Abrams, Sam Watters, Mark Calderon and Kevin “K.T” Thornton met while singing in the same church choir in Oklahoma. They formed a band together just before high school after discovering their similar tastes in music and spent their high school years singing together, building a reputation with their doo-wop style harmonies. One of their early champions was Robert Bell of Kool and the Gang, who saw the groups potential and signed them up with a manager that he knew personally. This manager relocated the group to New York City, New York but found that in the big city, they were one of many, many acts trying to make a name for themselves.
After a year and a half’s worth of concerts and label showcases, the band signed to Giant Records in 1990. The band debuted in 1991 with the release of their debut single “I Wanna Sex You Up”, which came out on the soundtrack of a crime film called New Jack City and made a name for the group immediately. In time, the song became an astonishing hit, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying there for four weeks. It was also huge in the U.K and New Zealand, marking an international breakthrough for the band as well. July 1991 saw the release of their debut album “C.M.B” which spent a total of 77 weeks on the Billboard 200, selling a million copies in its first two months of release.
The band spent the years of 1991 and 1992 as one of the biggest names in pop music but it wasn’t to last. The band stayed at a more manageable level of fame for the rest of the decade, occasionally scoring top twenty hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and releasing albums that got far more critical acclaim than they ever did at their commercial peak. However they still weren’t selling, and after the commercial failure of 1998’s “Awakening”, the band split in 2000. However, Abrams and Calderon revived the band as a duo in 2010, and were soon able to convince Thornton back into the fold as well, they’ve been touring ever since, and they still come highly recommended.
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.
If you’re not entirely sure exactly what it is that ‘Color Me Badd’ is supposed to mean, then I’d like to think you’re in good company - I’d be lying if I told you I knew, either. Thankfully, though, the R&B five-piece had the good manners to ensure that we wouldn’t encounter similar problems with their recorded output; I don’t think any deep philosophical debates are going to be required to ascertain the true meaning behind their smash hit, U.S. number two single ‘I Wanna Sex You Up’, or indeed their American chart-topper I Adore Mi Amor, even if they did do their best to confuse us by segueing into a different language on their 1991 debut album C.M.B. They emerged from their native Oklahoma City with that record into a degree of stardom that, in the nineties at least, afforded them an impressive fanbase on both sides of the Atlantic, with the group scooping the coveted Best New Group award at the Smash Hits Awards here in the United Kingdom back in 1992. By the mid-nineties, there’s no question that their star had begun to wane - their 1996 album Now and Forever failed to meet sales expectations despite high-profile production credits that included members of Boyz II Men - but all the same, they reunited in 2011 - minus two of their original number - for a concert in Hawaii that ultimately led to a slew of further dates being added across the U.S. They haven’t yet made it back to the UK, but with a new album slated to be released this year, it shouldn’t be too long until they launch a transatlantic comeback
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.