Yo, VIP! Let's kick it!
Remember when former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight (AKA Big Suge, Big Simon, Marion Knight Jr.) grabbed pioneering Caucasian pop-hopper and South Florida native Vanilla Ice (AKA Robert Van Winkle), then dangled his pasty ass from a 15th-floor balcony till he forked over the publishing rights to classic '90s superhit "Ice Ice Baby"?
Well, neither does Mr. Vanilla. Or at least that's not exactly how he remembers it.
"He never hung me over no balcony, man," Ice says.
In an interview with Sway Calloway on Shade 45's Sway In The Morning radio show, Ice insisted the whole story's been greatly exaggerated over the years.
"'No, you know what it is? When these things become so [much a part] of pop culture, it takes on a life of its own."
The Vanilla vs. Suge beef: In 1991, one of Knight's homeboys, California rapper Mario "Chocolate" Johnson, claimed to have written parts of "Ice Ice Baby" and he was pissed about never receiving credit or royalties.
The much-mythologized negotiating tactic: Suge, Chocolate, and a Los Angeles Raiders linebacker busted into Ice's suite at the Bel Age Hotel, picked him up by the ankles, lowered his cracker butt over the edge, and threatened to drop a big messy scoop of Vanilla on the sidewalk unless he gave up the rights to "Ice Ice Baby."
But the reality according to Ice: It never happened. And like gentleman, the dispute got settled in a court of law.
"In all honesty, you know, that money that Suge did get from me, he was nice about it," Mr. Vanilla told Sway.
"I got it. I know who you are, you don't have to beat me up. I know everything about you. I get it, you got my attention.
"But the story seemed a little bit better and more interesting when you got Vanilla Ice hanging upside down and got his change coming out of his pocket, you know? Come on."
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