Pop Culture Retrospective Episode # 19 - Vanilla Ice: The backstory behind one of America's best selling hip-hop artists that everyone loves to hate.

In the early 1990s, my sister and I had a plethora of toys to play with and VHS tapes to watch.  Sometimes my sister could convince me to play Barbies and sometimes I could convince her to pitch me a baseball.  We enjoyed movies like “Old Yeller” and during the holidays we liked to watch “Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas.”  

One thing we could also both agree on during this time was Vanilla Ice. We both thought he was the best entertainer (besides MC Hammer of course) and I think the general consensus in our household was that he was one a million and unlike anything we’d ever seen before.   Now granted, we were pretty young at the time, but still, before the days of Social Media and YouTube, he stood out I think to anyone who was into popular music at this time.  My sister and I became such big fans of his that someone bought us a Vanilla Ice Doll (complete with the razor cuts to his eyebrows).  We also had a VHS tape entitled “Vanilla Ice:  Play that Funky Music White Boy” which featured 3 music videos:  Ice, Ice, Baby, Play that Funky Music and Stop That Train.  We must have watched this tape a million times and always cranked up the volume and did our best to impersonate his dance moves in our living room.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that we caught a fever and the only prescription was more Vanilla Ice. I’ll post a link to some of the music videos I just mentioned as they are some of the most 90s things I can think of. 

With that being said, on today’s show, we will be discussing the backstory behind the short-lived pop culture explosion that was and is, Vanilla Ice.  You will learn about his early life, how he honed his rapping and dancing skills, his downfall and his life after being in the spotlight (and tape decks) all over the world.  You’ll also get to hear a lot of his memorable and yet forgetful, lyrics.  So grab your baggy pants, your gold hoop earrings and start up your 5.0, here we go! 

Robert Matthew Van Winkle (primarily known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, I may go back and forth between calling him Rob, Vanilla Ice or Ice) was born on October 31st, 1967.  The timing of this show is perfect as it will likely be released on October 31s, 2020, Happy Birthday, Ice! He is 53! Anyhoo, he was born in South Dallas, TX.  He was raised primarily by his mother, Beth Mino, who was a music teacher and classically trained pianist.  His father abandoned him at a young age and his mother would go on to re-marry 3 or 4 times.  He has a half brother and sister, all 3 siblings have different fathers.  His mother is of German and English heritage.  Growing up, Rob really struggled a lot in school and didn’t find a lot of success there.  Although he wasn’t academically oriented, Rob did love poetry and writing music.  During his early teenage years, Rob fell in love with breakdancing and hip-hop music. Most of his friends were black and they gave him the nickname Vanila because he was the only white kid in the group.  At first he didn’t like it, but eventually he embraced it as ultimately it sounded like it was a term of endearment. He wrote rap music while he was in high school, and often went to parties where he would battle his peers through beatboxing and breakdancing. 

He spent Friday and Saturday nights breakdancing in parking lots and also in his local shopping mall.  People would tip him during his performances and he would use the money to buy pizza, go to the movies and chase girls.  When he was just 16 years old, he penned the lyrics for Ice, Ice, Baby. The first draft took a mere 15 minutes to write and was allegedly about a weekend VI spent with his best friend in which a drug deal went bad and ended with a drive by shooting, but more on that later.  Vi said that he used to cruise the streets of Dallas, looking for trouble and running from the cops.

He failed a few grades during his schooling and was 18 years old when he started 10th grade.  Unfortunately, Rob ended up dropping out of school but managed to make a living by washing cars.  I believe one of his Stepdads was a car salesman and Rob worked at the same dealership.  Rob was a pretty competitive motocross rider when he was a young man, but an ankle injury prevented him from pursuing it further.  As he was recovering, he got more and more into hip hop music and dancing.  Although he was not of legal age, Rob took his brother's ID and used it as a fake ID so that he could get himself into nightclubs so he could dance and later, regularly perform.  He often frequented a primarily black club in a tough section of South Dallas, TX.  On one night, the club had an open mic night, and Rob’s friend, Squirrel, dared him to go on stage.  Apparently, he took a shot and jumped on stage and showcased his rapping and dancing skills.  The audience absolutely loved him and he was asked to routinely perform which he gladly accepted.  He was often joined on stage by a DJ.  At this time, he dressed like his hip hop idols, and was often found clad in a tracksuit and a large, rope-sized gold necklace.  In the late 1980s, some of the popular hip hop artists included the Beastie Boys and Run DMC.  

In 1987, Vanilla Ice was stabbed outside of a Dallas nightclub.  He was stabbed 4 or 5 times and was in the hospital for 10 days.  He lost several pints of blood, but managed to survive.  

A few years later, after getting some experience under his belt, he performed at a nightclub and was approached by a few record companies who wanted to strike a deal with him.  At first, he thought they were joking.  After all, as he said, the club he primarily performed at was located in a very dangerous part of the city.  It was legitimate and in 1989, he signed with Ichiban records and released his first record called “Hooked.”  The record featured two of his somewhat well-known songs including “Play that Funky Music” and “Hooked” like the album title suggests.  Here are some lyrics from Hooked, which is a song about a girl sort of taking control over a guy she isn’t really dating:

Yo, Get tough was your new campaign

Cryin' over a girl, boy, you're insane

She treats you like a dirty diaper

Use you one time and then she wipes you out

You understand what I'm sayin'?

The song “Play that Funky Music” includes some of my all time favorite and memorable cheesy Vanilla Ice lyrics (and I didn’t have to look these up, I still know these off of the top of my head even though I haven’t owned a Vanilla Ice Album in almost 30 years:

Check it out, cause Ice is rhyming

To the top I keep on climbing

Suckas thought I couldn't swing this

Now rock the crowd and get a pump-fist

Go, Ice, everybody is sayin'

To the funky beat that's playin'

If you wanna stop me you can't hang

Vanilla is in this with a shotgun bang

Extreme is where I'm taking it

One week MCs just keep on faking it

Smooth, like Strawberry ice cream

Flow with the beat real smooth and nicely

Ladies, I wanna' rock with you

And Later in the night, you know I'd like to pursue

Something real sexy and nice

Play that funky music, Vanilla Ice!

Very eloquent, am I right?  “Play That Funky Music” was released as a single, but it didn’t do super well.  In an important strike of genius, a DJ in Georgia decided to flip over Vanilla Ice’s album to the B-Side and listened to the song “Ice Ice Ice Baby” and thought it was a great song, so he played it on the radio and it took off immediately.  It struck a chord with the radio audience and started to spread like wildfire all over the country.  Hundreds of people called into radio stations requesting the song, they couldn’t get enough of Ice, Ice, Baby and the same went for me and my sister.  It didn’t take very long for the song, Ice Ice Baby to hit the charts, it was actually the first Hip-Hop song to reach the Billboard charts. In 1990, Vanilla Ice signed with SBK records and with the success of the hit song, SBK decided to re-package the “Hooked” album and released it as “To the Extreme.”  Several music videos coincided with this album, including ones for Ice, Ice, Ice Baby, Play that Funky Music and Stop that Train, all of which I mentioned at the top of the show which were showcased on a VHS tape that was often found in our Zenith VCR.  The music video for Ice, Ice, Baby cost a mere $8,000 to produce and was filmed on top of a warehouse in Dallas, TX. Part of his agreement with SBK included changing how he dressed and styled his hair and such so he would have a more mainstream appeal.   His management team really wanted him to emulate MC Hammer as much as possible because he was incredibly popular and successful at this time.

He started to perform to larger audiences and opened for many well-known acts at the time including Paula Abdul, Ice T, Sir Mix A-Lot, Sinbad and Tone Loc.  When he first started performing it was to primarily black audiences and once he opened for MC Hammer he really started to explode and diversify his audience.  He spent most of 1990 and 1991 on tour.

1991 really and truly became the year of Vanilla Ice.  His album was flying off shelves in music stores all over the country.  It would go on to become one of the best selling hip-hop albums of all time.  As Vanilla Ice once said in a somewhat recent interview, in the 90’s we danced.  And danced, we did.  At it’s peak, the album sold ½ a million copies in a week, then ½ a million copies in just a few days and on and on.  In January of 1991, he was the musical guest on SNL.  He dated Madonna for about a year in their heigh-day.  According to VI, she really pursued him….she came to his show one night and then weasled her way into his dressing room.  They went out that night for drinks and were very much the it-couple of the moment. He was also voted one of People Magazine’s most beautiful people in 1991.  And to really stress how popular he was at the time, a Vanilla Ice Doll was released by THQ toys, also in 1991.  There were several different versions of the doll including one in a gold jacket, one is a black and silver jacket and the other in sort of a pink and turquoise sparkly jacket.  The knees and elbows bent, he was considered an “action figure.” Further, the box indicated that there was a postcard and fan club information inside.  Who remembers fan clubs?  

When To The Extreme started to sell extremely well (get it?) what Vanilla Ice and his manager feared would happen, came true….they were sued for sampling “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen for the song, Ice, Ice, Baby.    The matter was settled out of court with VI paying some hefty fines and had to put Bowie and Queen as co-authors of the track.  He learned about musical rights from this and would eventually go on to purchase the rights to all of his music which turned out to be a very wise decision.

And, if we couldn’t get enough of Vanilla Ice in 1991, he contributed to the sequel to the live action film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II:  Secret of the Ooze.  He had a cameo in the film where he performed his song:  Ninja Rap.  Apparently, Vanilla Ice was actually a huge Ninja Turtles fan, so when he was approached by the film’s producers to help with the soundtrack and star in the movie, he jumped at the chance.  He actually had to take a break from touring with MC Hammer to film his part in the film where we see VI performing his signature 90s dance moves while chanting:  “Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!”

Soon, VI started to headline his own tours, all over the world.  He was the first rapper to have a world wide tour and play in former communist countries like Germany, Russia and China.  Music from these countries were then inspired to create their own hip hop acts like Snap (remember the song, “I Got the Power?” that was snapped which my sister danced to at our elementary school’s talent show).  Once, while performing in Turkey, despite the language barrier, Vanilla Ice was taken aback when he saw all of the audience singing along to Ice, Ice, Baby.  

In addition to the doll, a Vanilla Ice game was also produced.  It was called the Vanilla Ice Electronic Rap Game.  And, it featured an electronic beatbox microphone.  Players had to rap a random song that was created by placing cards on top of pictures of VI on the board.  

In an attempt to capitalize on VI’s success, not only was there a doll and a board game, but a live album entitled “Extremely Live” was released in 1991.  It was recorded during a performance he did in Miami.  It got pretty terrible reviews because so much of his performances also included dancing that the album had sort of a “you had to be there” sort of vibe to it.  The record company later revealed that the albums released was mainly to ride the coattails of the success of To the Extreme.  

And in what was finally the last straw in terms of the over-commercialization of Vanilla Ice, in October of 1991, the film “Cool as Ice” was released.  It cost about 6 million dollars to make, but only earned about 1 million dollars.  It received horrible reviews including this one from the Washington Post: “Having established that he can't rap or dance, Vanilla Ice now adds acting to his resume -- call it the tri-imperfecta of pop. And judging by the thin crowds at weekend screenings of Vanilla Ice's feature film debut, it might better have been called "Cold as Ice" than "Cool as Ice." Hopefully it's a promise of things to come.  The film itself is a cross between an after-school special and MTV video, melding threadbare plot with colorful visuals and delivering a message, which is, basically, Vanilla Ice is cool, you know? Having already ripped off hip-hop culture for a multi-platinum debut album, the Ice-person continues to seek street credibility with his African American posse, one that rides its garishly painted motorcycles into a quiet little town ready to be all shook up. It's "Footloose" meets "The Mild Ones," but the posse is offscreen for most of the film. This star vehicle is built for one.”

In interviews years after the film’s release, Vanilla Ice blamed the record company for encouraging him to star in this movie.  This was sort of the beginning of the end for Vanilla Ice’s time in the spotlight. It was after the film’s release and subsequent failure that VI decided to take a step back from his record company’s advice.   

Vanilla Ice didn’t get to enjoy his fame as much as you’d think.  He had a lot of money which allowed him to purchase houses and cars, but he was the target of relentless criticism and essentially bullying, especially after his record company allegedly wrote a fake biography about him.  In the bio it said that he was a gang banger and that he went to an all-black high school, all of which was not true.  A Dallas-based reporter was able to refute these claims through research and interviews and published an article in the Dallas newspaper, it quickly spread like wildfire.  From this point on, the media became much more critical of him and if you watch interviews from this time period, you can see how rude people were to him and assumed they were an expert on his life during appearances.  It’s hard to know what is accurate though as the record company alleged that Vanilla Ice fabricated the story. 

Either way, between the discrepancies with this biography and the over-commercialization of Vanilla Ice, his rise to the top was starting it’s descent.  Just like with MC Hammer, people started labeling Vanilla Ice a sell out.  And just like some groups did with MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice also had diss tracks written about him.  Take the group 3d Bass for example, in the song “Pop Goes the Weasel” they rapped quote:  [Serch] Ya stole somebody's record then ya looped it, ya looped it

[Pete] Ya boosted the record then ya looped it, ya looped it

[Kurious] Aiyyo, I came from Cali, and they hooped it, they hooped it

[Pete] But now you're getting sued kinda stoopid

Apparently, these lyrics were about not just Vanilla Ice, but MC Hammer as well who also sampled music.  Vanilla Ice won the American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist and he was up against Candyman (remember “Knockin’ Boots” cause I do) and Digital Underground (Humpty Hump).  This upset a lot in the hip hop and rap community because some felt like he made it big, so quickly and had such a big ego and meanwhile, hip hop artists who were struggling to make it and who did not sample music didn’t see as much success.  Forbes named Vanilla Ice as one of the highest paid entertainers of 1991.  

Vanilla Ice was famously impersonated on In Living Color by the Comedic Genius of Jim Carrey.  In the bit, Jim Carrey is clad in a stereoptical Vanilla Ice costume with a flashy black and silver jumpsuit and crisp white hightops.  He parodies the song “Ice Ice Baby” by rapping “White, White, Baby.”  Here are some of those lyrics:

Yo VIP, let's kick it (he kicks his leg in the air and his shoe flies off)

All right, stop, while I do up my laces

This kinda thing happens every show

Yo, I gotta learn how to tie a bow

(What's your real name?) Robert Van Winkle

(Why'd you change it?) Nothing rhymes with "Winkle."

I'm white, and I'm capitalizin'

On a trend that's currently risin'

Then mix it with Curly and Larry and Moe

Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop hey yo!

(When you gonna stop?) Maybe never

I become richer with every endeavor

I'm livin' large and my bank is stupid

'Cause I just listen to real rap and dupe it

That impression was very memorable but I think it also solidified the beginning of the end.  Vanilla Ice became sort of the laughing stock of pop culture and I definitely remember that.  

Kevin Bacon also impersonated him on SNL and during what was a skit where his character is interviewed on a talk show, his answer to every question by the host was “Word to Your Mother.”  Now, don’t get me wrong, Vanilla Ice also dished out some not-so-kind words to his adversaries, but the common denominator in terms of who was constantly poked fun at, was Vanilla Ice.

After touring extensively from 1990-1993, Vanilla Ice took some time off to focus on jet skiing and motocross.  In 1994, he started to follow the rastafari movement...he grew dreadlocks (which I completely forgot about), he became a vegetarian and he started opening up about his marijuana use.  Later in 1994, he released the album:  “Mind Blowin” which received pretty negative reviews.  Apparently the lyrics aren’t all that creative or inspiring and there is an undertone of drugs in a lot of the songs.  Vanilla Ice would later admit to having been under the influence of a plethora of drugs during it’s recording.  SBK records dropped him from their label when this album didn’t sell well.  SBK records went bankrupt shortly after this album was released.  Also around this time, Vanilla Ice started to become very depressed and lonely and he developed a pretty significant substance abuse problem which I just alluded to.  At first he was abusing adderall and xanax and then he was apparently using an excessive amount of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy.  As he once described it, he had quote: “a weekend that lasted 8 months.”  Since he was often under the influence, he ended up with several random tattoos that he does not remember getting and didn’t really pick out himself.  Although he did pick out a TMNT tattoo, I’m not kidding.  

On July 4, 1994, Vanilla Ice hosted a huge party at his house and invited a lot of his friends over, including those he made racing jet skis.  As the party progressed he realized that the next day, he would be alone.  He was depressed, addicted to drugs and felt incredibly lonely.  He thought that maybe it was time to go, forever. The relentless criticism that he received pushed him to the edge. So, Vanilla Ice wrote a note and intentionally overdosed on all kinds of illegal substances, hoping that he wouldn’t wake up.  His friends stayed with him while he was unconscious and kept dumping water on him and he remarkably survived his suicide attempt.  After this horrific incident, he decided it was time to make a change.  He started by selling his house in California and moved to Florida to again focus on two of his other passions and strengths:  jet ski racing and motocross.  He ended up becoming one of the top jet ski racers in the world and was even professionally sponsored.  

While he was pursuing athletic endeavors, he also started studying real estate and as a side-gig he started buying and renovating houses.  He also met his future wife about one year after his suicide attempt, they would go on to have 2 daughters together.  

In 1995, Vanilla Ice started recording with a grunge band and a year later in 1996, he signed with Universal Republic Records and did some guest vocals on a Bloodhound Gang album.  

In 1998, he released the album “Hard to Swallow” which was a mix of rock and hip hop, again it was given very harsh and negative reviews.  

However, this album expanded his audience once again, many of whom were not necessarily familiar with some of his previous works.  Many of the lyrics on this album have a darker sound- Vanilla Ice was encouraged by Producer Ross Robinson to use his pain and frustration to help fuel his sound and lyrics.  So he wrote about his struggles with fame, his drug addiction, and his childhood.  

2001 saw the release of Vanilla Ice’s 4th studio album, Bi-Polar.  On this record, he collaborated with Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan and Insane Clown Posse aka ICP.  That’s a group I haven’t heard for 15 years.  This same year, he was also arrested for assaulting his wife.  Apparently they were driving down a highway and got into an argument...when his wife tried to exit the vehicle via the truck’s vehicle he grabbed her hair.  Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the first or last night he’d have run-ins with the law.  

In the early 2000s, Vanilla Ice found himself on a few celebrity reality shows.  In 2002 he starred on the boxing show, Celebrity Boxing.  He fought against Todd Bridges from Different Strokes.  Apparently Todd Bridges was an experienced boxer, but the match ended in a draw.  In 2004, he starred in the Surreal Life which is basically a rip-off of the Real World from MTV, but starred kind of has-been celebrities.  Some of his housemates were Gary Coleman, also from Different Strokes and Eric Estrada from Chips.  A lot of the show was of course staged, but Vanilla Ice developed a strong connection with Tammy Faye Messener, the famed Televangelist and Christian singer.  She said something that stuck with him and helped him cope with his past:  “We are who we are because of who we were.”  He repeats this quote  a lot during interviews.  He also starred in Circus of the Stars, where he rode a motorcycle through fire.  

In 2005 Vanilla Ice released an album called Platinum Underground.  The purpose of the album’s title was to indicate that he could still have a strong following despite not being mainstream anymore.  Just a few years later in 2008, he released a cover album called “Vanilla Ice is Back” in which Vanilla Ice recorded covers of popular hip hop hits.  Once again, this did not go over well and the album didn’t sell very well.  

Once again having run-ins with the law, Vanilla Ice was arrested for battery against his then wife in 2008.  The charges were eventually dropped though due to lack of evidence.  

2009 saw the reunion of two of the most notorious artists of the early 1990s- Vanilla Ice of course and MC Hammer.  They performed together in a show called “Hammer Pants & Ice.”  It seemed like both MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice began embracing their pasts and for those of us who grew up listening to both of them, this was a welcome opportunity.  

The DIY network caught wind of Vanilla Ice’s efforts to flip houses and he was offered a show, so in 2010, he got his own home rehab show called “The Vanilla Ice Project.” 

In the show, Vanilla Ice purchases large homes that have seen better days and he and his crew work to update and re-do the houses and sell them for a significant profit.  Unlike a lot of other home renovation shows, his is not staged and he does do a lot of the work himself and with his crew.  He doesn’t just show up at the beginning and end.  The show is still on the air today! 

In 2012 and 2013 he did some more touring and performances including helping to open a rollercoaster at Six Flags and then in 2013 he toured with Boyz II Men and New Kids on the Block.

More recently, VI has been on the I love the 90’s tour which has included 90’s staples including:  Color Me Badd, Coolio and some of me and my sister’s favorites including:  Salt & Peppa and All 4 One.  He also starred in a commercial for Ninja Turtles Mac & Cheese where he is stocking it on a shelf in the grocery store and starts doing the Go Ninja rap when a customer stops to grab one to add to her cart.  In 2015 he was again arrested, this time for theft.  He allegedly stole some items like a pool heater and a bicycle from a home that was for sale near one of the properties he was renovating.  Remarkable though, he got through this situation and like I mentioned, his show is still on the air.   He also go re-married in 2018 and had another child, he now has 3 girls.  

Here are some fun facts about Vanilla Ice:

• Back when he had memorable hairstyles with the fade and razor cuts, he actually did that all himself
• When Vanilla Ice starred in the box office flop, Cool as Ice, he did all of his own motorcycle stunts
• VI loves exotic animals and over the years he’s had a Lynx, Tiger, and Kangaroo.  Once, his pet Goat and Walaroo (combination of Wallabee and Kangaroo) got loose from his house.  They were eventually caught and VI had to pay a hefty fine.    
• At one time, his Ex-Wife owned a surf shop called “2 The Extreme” which is of course named after VI’s album
• There is a street named after him in his childhood home of Carrolltown, TX.
• He has made million of dollars by renovating houses and has done so for about 25 years
• Even though Vanilla Ice’s mom wasn’t super supportive of his career endeavors (she said that white kids don’t rap) he did end up buying her a house when he started to make money.  
• As far as I could tell through my research, Vanilla Ice did not ever receive dance lessons (sort of like MC Hammer, he was all self-taught).
• When To the Extreme went to the #1 spot on the Billboard charts, it bumped “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em from the top spot.  
• When VI came onto the music scene, famous rapper Missy Elliott was quite taken aback by his ability to dance and do the splits!
• When Vanilla Ice was first getting started, he apparently used money he earned from selling drugs to pay for studio time
• As we discussed, Vanilla Ice was impersonated on In Living Color, a sketch comedy show that ran from 1990-1994...Coincidentally on an Awards show in the early 1990s, Vanilla Ice was introduced by Keenan Ivory Wayans who was the genius behind that show.
• He wrote a biography entitled:  “Ice by Ice.”  Can you guess what year it was released?  Ah yes, 1991.  The year of Vanilla Ice.  
• The Dallas Texans football team once blamed Vanilla Ice for their poor sports season after he performed at their half time show.  Decades later, he still gets blamed for everything!  The Jacksonville Jaguars also blamed Limp Bizkit for something similar.  I guess I could see how having a band that repeated and rhymed Nookie and Cookie over and over again in one of their hit songs could be bad luck, but I digress.  
• The live action film TMNT II:  Secret of of the Ooze was incredibly popular in foreign countries and exposed a lot of people to Vanilla Ice, further adding to his audience
• Last year it was announced that a biopic about Vanilla Ice was being produced.  

As we wrap up today’s show on Vanilla Ice, I’ll leave you with a few lyrics from the song “I Love You” which was on the To the Extreme album.  Apparently, VI was really irritated that the record company wanted him to do a slow song, but that was what a lot of hip hop artists were doing at the time, so he was essentially forced to do the same.  Part way through the song, Vanilla Ice calls up his girlfriend, she answers the phone and he has this to say to her:

Hello girl, when I first saw you. it was love at first sight

We've been goin' out now for about two years and I still feel the same

I know I haven't said it much before...well...it's because

See, I get all choked up inside. it just doesn't want to

Come out. I don't know. maybe this'll help all the bad

Things i've done. so, no matter what goes on, no matter

What happens, always remember...I love you!

I hope you have enjoyed this look back on the life and hard times of the one and only, Vanilla Ice.  Although his career, spanning over 3 decades now, has been riddled with controversy, police run-ins and relentless criticism, I think there are a few life lessons we can take from Vanilla Ice.  First of all, if there is something you are interested and passionate about whether that be music, dancing, dinosaurs or Disney World, don’t let anyone make you feel bad for your interests.  He sort of stuck out like a sore thumb when it came to hip hop music and dancing, but he didn’t let that stand in his way despite the unbelievable hatred that was thrown his way, for years.  And with that, even though he was ridiculed to no end, he has continued to perform because he loves it and finds a lot of fulfillment through it.  That being said, his run-ins with the law are by no means excusable but I think all signs point to him maybe missing out on some much needed guidance and role-modeling in his early years.