I’ll never forget the day I first heard Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”. I was enraged. Angry. Overwhelmingly pissed off. Ok, I may have slightly over reacted.
The bass riff in the sounded almost exactly like the bass riff in Queen’s “Under Pressure”, one of my favourite Queen tracks.
I then heard Vanilla in an interview say that the riff wasn’t the same because there was an extra little bit at the end of the riff. Well, yes, that’s true, there is an extra little but at the end, however it’s clear that 90% of the riff was ripped off by Mr Ice.
Here he is trying to explain himself:
Back in 1990 when the song was released, Queen took V. Ice to court for copyright infringement. It was reported that Queen and V. Ice came to an undisclosed out of court settlement. I rejoiced hearing this, knowing that he had suffered a financial penalty for plagiarism.
However, years later Mr Caramel Ice (oops, Vanilla) explained what actually happened:
He explained here that rather than have to pay royalties to Queen every time “Ice Ice Baby” was played or used for commercials, etc, it was cheaper for him to purchase the publishing rights to “Under Pressure” which he claims cost him $4 million at the time and was a “great investment”.
Great investment indeed!! Have a look at the interview above where he explains all of this. He actually seems like a fairly nice guy. Never thought i’d say that, maybe i’m mellowing in my old age!
Lots of Love!
Gareth
I сould not refrain from commenting. Very well written!
Thank you!!!
That was very interesting. Great job and well put!
I saw this while in school made me laugh with the caramel ice
I wish Queen & David Bowie had stopped the sale of Under Pressure so they could have shut down the unoriginal rip off of a great song. Someone really fell down in the job there
When I was around 9 years old circa 1992 I found a mixtape on the street on near the corner store at the end of my street. I still vividly putting the tape into my dad’s big hifi system when I got home. I excitedly pushed play and heard the beginning of Ice Ice Baby. By the end of the riff I knew that this was a ripoff of another song. It took 4yrs before I put two and two together and connected it with Queen. I still love Ice Ice Baby but not as much as I do Queen!
I can’t really say I’m a fan of the song. At the time I was quite upset at the theft of it all! These days I’m a little more relaxed about it! 😂
Gareth you need to get your shit together
Sorry, what do you mean?
Thank you for this article! My friend and I were in a disagreement about if this occurred. I lost!!!!! Lol. My argument was that ‘no one would be so dumb as to copy that song and pretend like nothing of it’!!!
It’s our pleasure Denise!! Such an interesting story huh!!