The infamous '90s rapper (a.k.a. Rob Van Winkle) will be in town to kick off Memorial Day weekend by headlining an off-the-chain evening of rap, rock and hip-hop acts on Friday night at the Venue of Scottsdale. A cadre of Phoenix's best rock and hip-hop acts will provide support for the Ice Man, including Property Six, Bomb Threat, Lucky D, Big May, Glock 17, Buckshot & RBG, and Fed Up.
Although the dood will forever be linked with the notorious 1991 track "Ice Ice Baby" (admit it, you actually dug the song when it first came out), he's done his damndest to distance himself that musical debacle.
He's also come along way from his days sporting that ridiculous flattop haircut, riding a crotch rocket around in flicks like Cool As Ice, and mugging for the camera in Teenage Mutant Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
Van Winkle adopted more of a nu-metal style sound and look over the previous decade, complete with tattoos and aggressive attitude. Who can forget his noteworthy appearance on the 1999 MTV special 25 Lame when he used a baseball bat to not only destroy a tape of the "Ice Ice Baby" video, as a good chunk of the set.
Here's hoping his his performance at the VoS tomorrow night will be just as memorable. And just to clarify, due to an error, Vanilla Ice's gig was incorrectly listed as taking place at Rosie McCaffrey's in the concert calendar in this week's issue. (Oops!) The concert will in fact be taking place at the Venue of Scottsdale. (So be sure not to stop by he CenPho Irish pub in search of the Ice Man, because he won't be there.)
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets ($20 in advance, $25 day of) can be purchased through this link.