This song is about a weekend of cruising and partying in Miami.
An Earthquake to Break the Ice
“Ice Ice Baby” is widely known for the sample brought to your ears by Floyd “DJ Earthquake” Brown. He’s the one who originally had the idea to take the bassline from “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, turning it into something fresh and new.
On the selection process, DJ Earthquake told the New York Post, “That song caught my ear right off. I just kept looping the eight bars and then I put a beat behind it. And when I let Ice hear it, he flipped out on it.”
Brown co-wrote the iconic hip-hop jam and produced it, though his contribution as producer went uncredited.
The track marks the first time a rap single made it to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 list. That’s what initially sparked Vanilla Ice’s rise to stardom and introduced a whole new wave of people to hip-hop.
A Partnership Turned Icy
The song that made Robert Van Winkle, better known as Vanilla Ice, famous isn’t without controversy. There was more than enough drama behind the scenes between Brown and Ice, fueled in part by a disagreement about how the tracks should be handled.
Vanilla Ice wanted a copy for himself to listen to for his own personal use while he rode around in order to write some new lyrics. Brown felt highly protective of his work and didn’t want to risk it being put out there until it was absolutely finished.
This started a fight between him and Brown, and it got so bad that Brown eventually demanded to have all his tracks deleted – which he assumed they were until he heard the song on the radio with his own lyrics included. Since then, Dj Earthquake and Vanilla Ice have fortunately made nice again.
The other controversy surrounding the song is owed to the fact that the use of the “Under Pressure” bassline hadn’t been legally cleared. Eventually, a deal was settled with Queen and Bowie.
Defrosting the Lyrics
“Turn off the lights, huh, and I’ll glow / To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal / Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle”
Here, Ice makes a series of allusions to candles, lights, and glowing to demonstrate his charisma onstage. The line “to the extreme” went on to inspire the album title of the same name.
“Love it or leave it, you better gangway”
It’s worth noting that the end of this line is sometimes misheard as “you better gain weight.”
“Now that the party is jumpin’ / With the bass kicked in and the Vegas are pumpin'”
These lines contain a reference to Cerwin Vega subwoofers and amps, which are hailed in their own slogan as “The undisputed boss of bass.”
In an interview outtake with National Geographic, Ice explained, “‘Ice Ice Baby’ was about a weekend that I had, obviously in Miami. ‘A1A Beachfront Avenue’ is one of the lines. And then in the third verse, it says, ‘Miami,’ ‘my town, that created the bass sound,’ which means the 808 kick drum. And then, you know, it was just about cruising in my 5.0, and then explaining the journey and the story of a weekend that I see in Miami Beach. So that was ‘Ice Ice Baby.’ I did it when I was 16 years old.”
Lyrics
Yo, VIP
Let’s kick it
Ice ice baby
Ice ice baby
All right stop
Collaborate and listen
Ice is back with a brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop?
Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights and I’ll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance
Go rush the speaker that booms
I’m killin’ your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it
You better gangway
You better hit bull’s eye
The kid don’t play
And if there was a problem
Yo, I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Now that the party is jumping
With the bass kicked in, the Vegas are pumpin’
Quick to the point, to the point, no faking
I’m cooking MC’s like a pound of bacon
Burning ’em if you ain’t quick and nimble
I go crazy when I hear a cymbal
And a hi-hat with a souped up tempo
I’m on a roll, it’s time to go solo
Rollin’ in my 5.0
With my ragtop down so my hair can blow
The girlies on standby
Waving just to say, “Hi”
Did you stop?
No, I just drove by
Kept on pursuing to the next stop
I bust a left and I’m heading to the next block
That block was dead
Yo, so I continued to A1A Beachfront Ave
Girls were hot, wearing less than bikinis
Rockman lovers driving Lamborghini
Jealous ’cause I’m out getting mine
Shay with a gauge and Vanilla with a nine
Ready for the chumps on the wall
The chumps are acting ill because they’re so full of eight ball
Gunshots ranged out like a bell
I grabbed my nine, all I heard were shells
Fallin’ on the concrete real fast
Jumped in my car, slammed on the gas
Bumper to bumper the avenue’s packed
I’m tryin’ to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene
You know what I mean?
They passed me up, confronted all the dope fiends
If there was a problem
Yo, I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Take heed, ’cause I’m a lyrical poet
Miami’s on the scene just in case you didn’t know it
My town, that created all the bass sound
Enough to shake and kick holes in the ground
My style’s like a chemical spill
Feasible rhymes you can vision and feel
Conducted and formed, this is a hell of a concept
We make it hype and you want to step with this
Shay plays on the fade, slice it like a ninja
Cut like a razor blade so fast
Other DJ’s say, “Damn”
If my rhyme was a drug
I’d sell it by the gram
Keep my composure when it’s time to get loose
Magnetized by the mic when I kick my juice
If there was a problem
Yo, I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla
Ice ice baby, Vanilla ice
Yo man, let’s get out of here
Word to your mother
Ice ice baby (too cold)
Ice ice baby (too cold, too cold)
Ice ice baby (too cold, too cold)
Ice ice baby (too cold, too cold)
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Brian May / David Bowie / Floyd Brown / Freddie Mercury / John Richard Deacon / Mario Johnson / Robert Van Winkle / Roger Taylor
Ice Ice Baby lyrics © Anthem Entertainment Lp, Peermusic Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
