★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
He's moved fromdrum machines to guitars, but Rob Van Winkle still can't rap. Helacks flow and his rhymes are just more empty threats andboasts. And for someone trying to escape his past, why does hekeep repeating "Ice Ice Baby"? On the basis of Hard to Swallow, heshould call himself Creamed Korn. D-
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Well, he may look like Dolph Lundgren, but to give Vanilla Ice hisfair share of credit, he probably would have scored with his hit rapsingle "Ice Ice Baby" even if he hadn't been white. There's justsomething about the way its hook ? a sample from Queen and DavidBowie's "Under Pressure" ? grabs you and flings you out onto the dancefloor. New Kids on the Block and the Beastie Boys have appropriatedtraditional rap conceits and adapted them to their particularCaucasian points of view...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
You idealist you--you thought rap couldn't get blander than Hammer. Fact is, it can get blander than this "mediagenic" white man, but for now he's mugger one. His suave sexism, fashionably male supremacist rather than dangerously obscene, is no worse than his suave beats, Hollywood Florida going Hollywood USA. At least Hammer's simple samples are fun sometimes.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-06-06
★★★★★
Vanilla Ice's reputation had already been shredded by the time this live CD was issued. It really wouldn't have mattered that he had invented an identity (standard operating procedure on the hip-hop circuit) if he had the skills, but Vanilla Ice proved himself amazingly bad beyond even the most militant hip-hopper's dreams. Nobody expected stunning insights, compelling raps or brilliant rhymes, but they at least expected his live show to be funny. Instead, it was just sad.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Four years after To the Extreme, Vanilla Ice came back with a refashioned, modern sound, borrowing from the blunted Cypress Hill, the deep funk of Dr. Dre, the quick-tongued rapping of Das EFX -- basically, anything that's been popular since his first album. While he spends an obscene amount of time dissing 3rd Bass, he counters all charges of being a sellout by stating that he has sold over 11 million records...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28