To the Extreme

To the Extreme is Vanilla Ice’s major label debut album released on September 3, 1990 and features Vanilla Ice’s two most successful singles, “Play That Funky Music” – which was a top 20 hit in six countries, and “Ice Ice Baby” – the first hip hop song to hit #1 in the US (it also topped the charts in several other countries). The album spent 16 weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, and sold 15 million copies worldwide.

A year after the album’s release, Vanilla was awarded two American Music Awards for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop New Artist & Favorite Pop/Rock New Artist

Vanilla Ice was both praised and lampooned for his mainstream success. While he was winning awards and performing around the world to large audiences, the media made him their punching bag. Comedy show In Living Color parodied his style and fellow white rappers 3rd Bass attacked his approach to hip hop in “Pop Goes The Weasel”.

His later releases found none of the success his debut album achieved.