Bi Polar (Vanilla Ice album)

Production

The album was initially planned as a double album consisting of one disc of rock music (Skabz) and one disc of hip hop music (Bomb Tha System). Before the album's release, it was decided that the two parts of the album would be released on one disc, with each part labeled. Each side of the booklet features a different cover for each part. Skabz features appearances from heavy metal music figures such as former Slipknot guitarist Josh "Gnar" Brainard, Roy Mayorga, and Billy Milano. Bomb Tha System notably features appearances from Insane Poetry's Cyco, Chuck D (of Public Enemy fame), the Insane Clown Posse, and Wu-Tang Clan affiliate La the Darkman. In the initial publicity for the album, Vanilla Ice claimed that the album would feature a guest appearance from Lenny Kravitz. Although Vanilla Ice is credited as "V-Ice" and "Ice" on the album, there was never any intent to change his stage name. The performer is quoted as saying "people are asking me that question [...] there's no name change. I'm proud of it and I'm not trying to run from anything or hide from anything."

Lyrics

"Hip Hop Rules" is Vanilla Ice praising what he loves about hip hop while overlooking his career. "Dirty South" and "Tha Weed Song" are about marijuana. "Molton", "Nothing is Real" and "Primal Side" deals with Van Winkle's mortality and thoughts of death while "Elvis Killed Kennedy" and "Hate" criticize the current condition the world is in.

A lot of the songs feature a mixture of explicit and humorous lyrics such as "Exhale" while songs like "Insane Killas" could be described as Horrorcore hip hop. The hardcore hip hop songs on the album, like "Detonator", "O.K.S." and "Unbreakable" focus on Ice's rhyming skills and flow while "Get Your Ass Up" and "Hot Sex" are club songs made for dancing, having lyrics that reflect that.

While mentioning him a couple of times in past interviews, Bi-Polar features Vanilla Ice's only musical response to Eminem who has been referencing him since the 90's and in almost every record since The Slim Shady LP (1999). In "Exhale", Ice claims that Marshall Mathers' initials stand for Mini-Me, which is also a reference to the Austin Powers franchise because the first film also referenced Vanilla Ice. Ice remarked that the song was just a joke and that he has no real beef with Eminem. Eminem did however name-drop Vanilla Ice again on The Eminem Show (2002) mentioning being reborn as his son and in the film 8 Mile (2002).

Release and reception

Five singles were released, "Nothing is Real","Get Your Ass Up", "Tha Weed Song", "Hot Sex" & "Elvis Killed Kennedy" Bomb tha System was reissued under the title Hot Sex on May 26, 2002, with alternate artwork depicting a woman in revealing clothing alongside Van Winkle.

According to a Sony BMG executive, sales of Bi-Polar were "not bad...for Vanilla Ice. That's pretty respectable. Seriously."

The album was universally panned by critics. Bradley Torreano of Allmusic greatly disliked the album, calling it "wildly uneven and at times hilariously bad". Torreano referred to the album's heavy metal-influenced songs as being "terribly generic" and derivative of bands such as Korn and Deftones. Torreano praised the production of the hip hop songs, but described Van Winkle's lyrics as "boring and simplistic", and felt that the inclusion of the phone messages at the end of the album was not necessary. Torreano called "Elvis Killed Kennedy", "the best song on the album" and described it as "a sadly rare example of the talent that [Chuck D] still has". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide gave the album one out of five stars.

Samples

Hot Sex

Elvis Killed Kennedy