Vanilla Ice

[Krutch]

I've been into Vanilla Ice as far as I can remember(pretty sure his website was the first message board I was ever apart of), so, here's my two cents on each of his main albums...

To The Extreme (1990): What set it off. I've listened to this album to death and don't usually listen to it all anymore, but when it came out, everyone loved it. Sounds pretty dated to new ears but there's some gems on there.
Best songs: Ice Ice Baby, Play That Funky Music White Boy, Stop That Train, Life is Just a Fantasy

Mind Blowin (1994): Considered his best work by most of his fanbase. He still borrows and rehashes lyrics from this album in his later work, so he must be pretty happy with it himself. It's a pretty laid back, smooth party album thats good to have in the background(in the mid nineties, that is). If you're interested in Vanilla Ice, here's a great place to start.
Best songs: Fame, The Wrath, Roll'em Up, Hit'em Hard

Hard to Swallow (1998 ): It's hard to imagine what a listener who isn't a teenager at the height of NuMetal would think of this. The album was so suited for its time(produced by Ross Robinson) with the drop D tuned guitars and angsty(if juvenile) lyrics: "Reality sucks/Too much pain/I can't explain/Why I wanna bash brains". Still, it was a huge shocker at the time hearing pop culture icon Vanilla Ice turn his gears and produce something that was pretty good. I like this album a lot, but it's dated as hell.
Best songs: Too Cold, ADD, Living, Freestyle

BiPolar (2001): For my money, it's Ice at his best. Here he divides the CD in half(first half hip-hop, second half numetal). He tries to stretch his vocals into new territories whether its singing on Nothing Is Real or getting gruff and gritty on Mudd Munster. He even tried the autotuning fad at the time for Tha Weed Song. I like this CD from top to bottom and while it's dated like most of his stuff, the production value on this keeps it pretty easy to approach.
Best songs: Nothing Is Real, I Know, Primal Side, Tha Weed Song, Unbreakable, Detonator, O.K.S, Dirty South

Platinum Underground (2005): Platinum Underground is a pretty strange album in that it's 25 tracks and all over the place in tone. 4 of the songs are either previously released or remakes and the last 9 tracks aren't songs, they're just voicemails left on Vanilla's answering machine. So that leaves us with 12 new songs. And whats there is okay. It feels like a less exciting BiPolar. And the fact that the tracks are all mixed up instead of divided into genres makes for an awkward listen. I guess the noteworthy track is Ninja Rap 2 for obvious reasons, but its more about his relationship with the Juggalos(also called Ninjas) than anything else. It's not a bad album, but its a bit messy.
Best songs: Survivor, Say Goodbye, Hustlin, Tell Me Why

W.T.F. (Wisdom, Tenacity And Focus) (2011): This one falls somewhere between Bipolar and Platinum Underground. It's just as all over the place in tone as before but there's more originality and some more experimentation going on here. Dance, acoustic ballads... He even dabbles a bit in country here. If theres one thing this CD cements is that Ice's voice is shockingly versatile and lends itself well to other genres outside his comfort zone. This album is pretty hard but worth it if you can.
Best songs: Turn It Up, Born on Halloween, Bought & Sold, Hooked(Unplugged)

Hope that helps!