Do you want to know what Vanilla Ice net worth is? Well, I have some great news for you because we are going to be discussing Vanilla Ice’s net worth in this article!
On top of that, we will also be taking a look at his early life and dissecting his career. Yes, by the end of this article you will know everything that there is to know about the world-famous star. So, let’s jump straight into it!
Who is Vanilla Ice?
Image Credit: Debby Wong/ Shutterstock.com
Vanilla Ice is a world-famous rapper who gained his fame by releasing a song called “Ice Ice Baby.” He is one of the most well-known rappers of his time and is adored by millions of fans. If you think that rapping is the only art form that Vanilla Ice is good at, you are in for a surprise.
As a matter of fact, the world-famous rapper has taken the correct steps to enter into a variety of other professions within the entertainment industry. For starters, apart from rapping, he is also a successful actor.
If that is not enough to convince you that the rap star is multi-talented and that he can be successful at anything that he sets his mind to, you may also be surprised to realize that he has entered a third profession within the entertainment industry as a television host.
Vanilla Ice is a multi-talented star and there are few celebrities who can fill his shoes. He is an inspiring rapper, actor, and television host who has shown the world that you can be successful within multiple areas of the entertainment industry as opposed to simply being successful in one position within the industry.
Due to the fact that Vanilla Ice put in the effort that was required to become as popular, loved, and successful as he is, I can say, without a doubt that Vanilla Ice net worth is one that he earned through hard work and dedication and it is most certainly a net worth that he is deserving of.
A lot of his fans as well as the publishers of celebrity articles have described him as one of the best rappers of his time. This means that even the media believes in what the star has accomplished through his career.
So, you may be wondering what Vanilla Ice’s net worth is if his career has been such a soaring success in not one, but three different areas of the entertainment industry.
Let’s delve deeper and take a look at the rap and television star’s net worth.
Recommended Reading
Vanilla Ice Net Worth
Image Credit: Debby Wong/ Shutterstock.com
The moment of truth has come where we will be discussing Vanilla Ice’s net worth. So, hold onto your horses because you are about to be shocked at what I am going to tell you.
Vanilla Ice net worth is an excessive amount, but once again, he earned it through talent, hard work, determination, and perseverance. As a matter of fact, Vanilla Ice’s net worth is currently estimated to be an amount of 12 million dollars.
That is enough to leave anyone feeling envious of what the star is worth. As a matter of fact, Vanilla Ice can probably buy anything that he wishes to have. This serves as enough proof that he is highly successful at everything that he does, and knowing the star, Vanilla Ice net worth will without a doubt continue to grow over the next few years.
Early Life
So, now that we know who Vanilla Ice is and what he is worth, let’s take a look at his early life and the origins of where the star comes from. For starters, as you may have guessed, Vanilla Ice is not the rapper and television star’s real name.
As a matter of fact, his real name is Robert Matthew Van Winkle, but he decided to adopt the stage name of Vanilla Ice as soon as he stepped into the entertainment industry. The star was born on October 31, 1967, which means that he celebrates his birthday on Halloween every year.
What a great birthday to have! The whole world celebrates a holiday on the day that Vanilla Ice celebrates his birthday.
It should not come as a surprise that the star entered the music industry since he is the son of a music teacher who raised him to appreciate and understand the concept of making music.
His mother’s name is Beth Mino and apart from being a music teacher she also played classical piano music which shows that Vanilla Ice was born into a family that has exceptional musical talents.
Unfortunately, the star never had the pleasure of meeting his biological father, but based on his success he was raised by a supportive, single mother who did a great job at raising a child who she probably did not know would one day be a world-famous celebrity.
His mother did not stay single for long and when the star was still a baby she remarried and decided to register Robert to have her new husband’s surname. So, luckily, despite having such an exceptional mother who was more than capable of raising her son alone, Vanilla Ice still had a father figure in his life as he was growing up.
Although Vanilla Ice was born in Miami, Florida, this is not where he was raised and spent the majority of his childhood. As a matter of fact, while he was still young his family relocated to South Florida.
After this, his family relocated once again, but this time they packed their things and relocated to Texas. Despite the fact that Vanilla Ice earned such great fame and success as a rapper, he didn’t always dream of entering the music industry.
As a matter of fact, he showed a keen interest in motocross races which he later started actively participating in. Being a motocross racer also was not Vanilla Ice’s only passion.
He also showed a keen interest in being a break dancer which is probably where he developed his passion for rap and hip hop since those are the most common genres of music to perform breakdancing routines to. He went as far as to take classes in order to become a great break dancer.
This was also where he developed the first part of his stage name. As a matter of fact, while he was attending breakdancing classes he was known by his peers as “Vanilla.” This was the start of creating one of the most popular names that are known in the modern-day and age.
Vanilla Ice was never a big fan of school. When he reached the point where he had to start attending High School, his mother enrolled him into a school that was called Attended R. L. Turner High School. He dropped out of this High School right before he was scheduled to complete and receive his high school Diploma.
However, Vanilla Ice was not about to be seen as a high school drop out and he knew how important it was to receive his high school diploma. That is why he made the decision to complete his educational career with The American School where he completed and received his high school diploma through the method of correspondence learning.
Vanilla Ice continued to pursue his passion for breakdancing. He showed exceptional talent in this field as well as was soon referred to as MC Vanilla by his friends.
He later decided to expand on this name by adding one of his favorite dance moves to the end of it which was known as the “ice” move. Shortly after this he became known as Vanilla Ice.
His dance companions were so impressed by Vanilla Ice and wholeheartedly supported both him and his new stage name. Due to their interest in his new name, they decided to call their team of break dancers Vanilla Ice too.
When Vanilla Ice was a teenager who was only 16 years old, he wrote his first and most popular song which we have already established is the world-famous song called Ice Ice Baby. He received great praise for his excellent rhyming and lyrical skills that were applied to the song.
The song also had more meaning behind it than one could have guessed. As a matter of fact, the lyrics to his song originated from a wild weekend that he had with his friends. On this weekend, Vanilla Ice and his friend called D-Shay went on an expedition to pick up illegal narcotics.
Even though they had probably done this plenty of times before, this specific night turned out to be quite a bit more exciting and dangerous than they had expected. As a matter of fact, the night ended with a drive-by shooting which Vanilla Ice and his friend thankfully survived.
The soon-to-be star made great use of this experience by writing lyrics to a number 1 hit track that was fully based on the experience that he had on that specific night. What the star did not know was that this exquisite song was the first step that he took that led him into the world of fame and achieving Vanilla Ice’s net worth.
While he wrote the song, the star’s passion was still breakdancing which he participated in on a regular basis. He also showed exceptional talent as a dancer and often performed at a nightclub that was called “City Lights” which was based in Dallas.
The owner of the club stood in awe at the outstanding breakdancing skills that Vanilla Ice possessed. It was not long before he approached the star with an offer to be his manager.
This was a mind-blowing opportunity that Vanilla Ice simply could not refuse. He made the right and responsible decision of accepting the generous offer and thus the owner of “City Lights” became the star’s first manager.
Recommended Reading
Vanilla Ice Career
View this post on Instagram
As we have already established, Vanilla Ice has a fruitful career that is filled with success in not one, but a few areas of the entertainment industry. Let’s take a look at how the star moved from being a breakdancer at a nightclub to being one of the most famous and successful celebrities of his time.
The first-ever album that Vanilla Ice released was called “Hooked.” On this album, he featured the song that earned him his fame which, of course, is “Ice, Ice Baby. Although he released an entire album, “Ice, Ice Baby” stood out above all of the other tracks that were recorded for the album.
As a matter of fact, “Ice, Ice Baby” was such a roaring success that it made it to the very top of the Billboard Charts and was the number one single of the time.
Yes, Vanilla Ice managed to make his way to the top of the billboard charts after releasing his first and only album which means that his very first attempt at entering the music industry was successful.
There are some of the biggest celebrities of the modern era who could not accomplish what Vanilla Ice did and it took many of his competitors a few attempts before their songs made it onto the billboard charts.
Some popular and influential radio stations realized how much potential Vanilla Ice’s music had, especially the song “Ice, Ice Baby, and it was not long before they started playing the upcoming star’s music on a variety of radio stations.
This paved the way for Vanilla Ice’s success. As a matter of fact, the news of this rising talent that took the world by storm did not fall on deaf ears.
After hearing his song on the radio and realizing that Vanilla Ice is a star in the making, SBK Records decided to represent Vanilla Ice after which they decided to approach him and offered him a record deal with their company.
The star also could not pass up on such a great and mind-blowing offer which led him to accept the record deal that he was offered.
He wrote a number of songs and released a new album with the help of SBK Records in the 1990s. The album was such a soaring success that multiple of the songs from the album as well as his single earned their place at the top of the Billboard charts.
In other words, almost every song that Vanilla Ice released made it onto the Billboard charts which serves as further proof of what great potential the star has. After this, the real fun started. Vanilla Ice was invited to go on a tour with another one of the most famous names in the rap and hip hop industry who is known as MC Hammer.
His tour with MC Hammer was the cherry on top in terms of becoming a world-famous star. Vanilla Ice was soon labeled and considered as a pop idol which is a great honor for any musician, regardless of which genre they specialize in.
Now that Vanilla Ice reached the peak of his success in the music industry it was time to step things up a notch and to explore other areas of the entertainment industry.
Shortly after releasing his new album, he stepped into the acting industry and made a guest appearance in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze which was released in the year 1991.
Not long after his appearance in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, he released yet another single that he called “Play that Funky Music.” This single was just as successful as his others were and it earned its place at number four on the Billboard Charts.
He spent an enviable and amazing period of 16 weeks at the top of the Billboard Charts. This is longer than most other famous artists have managed to secure their own spot on the Billboard Charts which shows that Vanilla Ice was destined for success.
To add the cherry on the top, more than 7 million copies of his next album were sold which he called “To the Extreme.”
Unfortunately, there came a time when Vanilla Ice net worth took a knock and his career began to decline. He participated in multiple interviews where he bragged about some of the things that he accomplished in his early years.
For starters, he claimed that he had won a majority of his motocross races. He also mentioned that he had a tough upbringing and spent a lot of difficult times on the streets. When the press investigated it they were surprised to realize that Vanilla Ice was not honest about what he had mentioned in these interviews.
They realized that he not only exaggerated a majority of the facts, but that some of the information that he provided had no truth behind it at all. After this, his career started declining even more. Vanilla Ice tried to undo some of the damage by placing the blame on his manager at first.
When that plan didn’t work he claimed that he made up the false information in order to protect his relatives. The media and general public started questioning why Vanilla Ice would provide false information and he lost a lot of credibility with the media and his fans.
Unfortunately, the decline of his career did not stop here either. Without warning, and probably due to Vanilla Ice’s sudden lack of credibility, music critics started posting negative feedback on some of the music that he had released. As a matter of fact, they claimed that his music was not original at all.
However, despite the negative criticism that he received, Vanilla Ice still managed to come out on top.
Where most rappers whose lyrics surrounded more controversial or political topics found it almost impossible to get their tracks onto the radio and Billboard Charts, Vanilla Ice along with MC Hammer’s tracks remained on the radio and the Billboard Charts due to the fact that they added an element of pop to their music.
Recommended Reading
Conclusion
So there you have it. We now know everything that there is to know about Vanilla Ice’s net worth, his early life, and his career. I am sure that you will agree that the star rose to the top of the entertainment industry’s food chain much faster than most other celebrities have.
Despite a small decline in his career, Vanilla Ice remains a popular name to this day and he still has a lot of adoring fans. He is a true inspiration and has shown the world that success can come easy if you work hard enough.
| Name | Vanilla Ice |
| Real Name | Robert Matthew Van Winkle |
| Date of Birth | 31 October 1967 |
| Place of Birth | South Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States |
| Height | 6 feet |
| Occupation | Rapper, Actor, Television Host |