Ten years have past since the hip-hop world was overtaken by the fresh, new rapping sound of Vanilla Ice, a hot young star who quickly became a household name. The success of his chart-topping track, Ice Ice Baby helped the young rapper sell more than 15 million copies of his debut album To the Extreme and move a new and interesting hip-hop sound across the nation.

The rapper surfaced from celebrity limbo Saturday when he filled the house at the Copper Dragon, 700 E. Grand Ave. An opening DJ mix show entertained the audience from 10 p.m. until around 12 a.m., and with hands flaring through the air and chants of Ice Ice Baby filling the hall, Vanilla Ice took the stage from midnight to 1 a.m.

During a pre-show interview, Vanilla Ice said he began his singing career at an early age and built his talents through childhood competitions.

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We had this thing, it was like a battle. We all met at this one parking lot. We’d get a keg of beer, and we had a crowd around us. It would be like who could cut who down the most, he said.

It was a rap contest, and the crowd would decide the winner. That went on for a long time, and I never thought anything would come from it. But I did it for so long that I started to enter talent contests at a young age.

The stress of achieving such success at an early age eventually became too overwhelming for the young rapper, who recorded Ice Ice Baby at age 16. His path turned down a dark road of drugs and turmoil. His music career plummeted along with his youth, and he said he found himself caught in an unfamiliar world.

All of my dreams were ripped away from me. I had tremendous success, I sold 15 million records, I was 16 years old and treated like a puppet, Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle) said. I was always getting pulled left and getting pulled right, people saying this and saying that. It was all very stressful.

Reality was a drag to me, so I wanted to escape and that was my escape route, drugs. It was some heavy stuff, and being in the music industry, it is always available for you.

Although earlier times have proven to be very trying on Vanilla Ice, he said he has found a new and promising direction. With the assistance of his faith, the rapper has made personal accomplishments he said are very admirable.

I definitely regret a lot of the things I have done, but we live and learn, he said. The good thing is that I’m still alive after turning to drugs.

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I took a stupid path, but I’ve discovered God through it. It’s been three years now that I’ve been sober and I will never turn around. I made a promise to God that I would never turn around.

Since his sobriety and new found faith, Vanilla Ice has made several strides in his personal and professional life. Sorry ladies, this rapping star is happily married and adoring over the birth of his baby girl.

Since I’ve made the promise to God he has been blessing me tremendously, by giving me a wife, a 7-month-old baby girl, and I’m back on tour and the music is great, he said.

I’m found, I’m no longer lost somewhere. I have good direction and I know where I’m at with God and I’m blessed. I couldn’t be happier than I am today.

Having been on tour for nine months, Vanilla Ice is eagerly anticipating his return home to his family and to his agents. Although no definite date has been released, Vanilla Ice is going back on tour for the next two years to promote his new album.

The hard rock band Korn and Vanilla Ice’s 15-year recording crew, Rob, Jay an Zero can be heard on his new album a sound Vanilla Ice said is unique and very appealing.

It’s going to have some old school tracks on there because I can’t leave my roots and people are going to want that. One side will be the old-school hip hop, and the other will be the new school stuff with the band and with Korn, he said.

This will have full bass and drums but still hip-hop influences with a DJ underneath. It is a hard category to be put it in because it is so different. I guess you just have to call it alternative or say that it doesn’t have a category.

At the Copper Dragon Saturday Vanilla Ice did just that. While his crew riled up the audience, Vanilla Ice began with new material, singing about marijuana and eventually turned toward his previous hits.

Students, adults and young teens obviously under the supervision of their parents chanted and screamed as Vanilla Ice sung verses to Ice Ice Baby and allowed the audience to sing the remaining lines of the song. Water, water bottle’s and sweat rags were thrown from the arms of the rapper into the audience of adoring fans.

The show was incredibly performed, even though the group utilizes no defined song set to work from.

Although the opening a DJ mix did not capture the attention of the audience, the crowd on hand responded with fierce energy in anticipation of one of the ’90s first one-hit wonder when the lights dimmed and smoke filled the stage.

Vanilla’s performance was short just a clock tick over an hour and sweet, but he kept spirits high when he said to the swarm of onlookers, There ain’t no party like an SI party, and the SI party don’t stop.

Unless you happen to be a nostalgic fad.