Welcome to THIS edition of GOOD QUESTION, brought to you exclusively by THISent.com! I’m your host, “Word Heavyweight Champion” Mr. Joe Walker.
Throughout my illustrious career as an entertainment writer and journalist, I’ve been blessed with opportunities to speak with many notable and famous persons. One of those is Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and TV star Vanilla Ice.
During our conversation I asked Vanilla Ice THIS good question: How do you feel about being respected and scrutinized while maintaining success?
He answered, “I’m not necessarily looking for the respect. I cater to those who appreciate what I’m doing – and there’s a whole lot of them! Most of my fans are 16 to 25 years old. If you do the math they were not born at all when “Ice, Ice Baby” was out. It don’t make sense, right? But here’s the deal: It’s evolution. They’re aware of “Ice, Ice Baby”, but everybody is. And it’s hard not to be. But more of them are into my new stuff and what I’m doing now. None of my new music is radio friendly, and it’s purposely made that way. I don’t want to go radio! I don’t want to go mainstream because I can sell a platinum record without doing all that.
We are who we are because of who we were. I’m older. I’ve matured. I’ve evolved from what I was. I hated on myself. I still hate the name “Vanilla”. Like I’ve said before, my Black and Latino homeboys called me that when I used to breakdance. I’d say, Stop calling me that! That’s racist! The more they saw it got to me the more they called me Vanilla! [Laughs] But that’s how your friends are. And it stuck. But it ain’t about the name, the gimmicks, or the image. People spend too much time trying to dissect what ‘it’ is. It’s about enjoying the music. That’s all it’s about. Be yourself and make a dope song. If people like it, they like it. If they like you, they like you.” |THIS.
[Written by Mr. Joe Walker | Follow THIS on Twitter @THISENT1]
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