"Ice Ice Baby," Spike Lee's *School Daze,* Paula Abdul

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So I just rented Spike Lee's *School Daze* (which sadly wasn't as good as I'd remembered it a couple years ago), and noticed that one of the black fraternities in it does the "ice ice baby/too cold too cold/ice ice baby/too cold too cold" chant; the movie came out in '88, and of course vanilla ice's big hit (which is better than the movie, but I don't want to get into that) came out a couple years later, but I don't remember anybody ever making the connection before. I just googled this ["ice ice baby" "school daze"] and ONE person had apparently made the connection on line, but I couldn't see what he wrote. Anyway, I know countless people over the years have claimed (probably accurately) that Ice stole a famous black fraternity chant, but I don't remember anybody singing out where he LEARNED it. And of course I'm not positive, but I bet there's a pretty good chance this movie is where.

Also: There is an actress in the movie (one of the "wannabe white" sorority girls) who looks a LOT like Paula Abdul; she shows up all through the movie. But Paula is not mentioned in the credits (one of those girls IS called "Paula Jones," though), and googling was no help; Paula did choreography for movies around that time apparently, and this movie has lots of (actually way too much) choregraphy (some of it included the actress in question) (and some of it seemingly inspired by beauty shops in *Grease*) but somebody else is credited with it. So my obvious question is: Is that Paula (a couple years pre-pop-stardom) or not?

― xhuxk, Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

Shit - I meant I rented the DVD a couple NIGHTS ago, not years, and it wasn't as good as I'd remembered it from a couple decades ago (but maybe that was obvious).

― xhuxk, Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

Well, Vanilla Ice did claim that he went to a high school that was "100% black."

― fitzroy, Monday, 24 October 2005 07:30 (twenty years ago)

There was a controversy at the time (which I believe I first read about in the Voice, in a Rob Tannenbaum review of To the Extreme IIRC) about Vanilla Ice stealing the song from a well known black college frat chant.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 24 October 2005 07:38 (twenty years ago)

haha sorry, should've read the whole post before answering

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 24 October 2005 07:38 (twenty years ago)

MC Serch was the first person to point this out.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 24 October 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

Well, as you all know, I'm in pretty tight with Vanilla and I have his email address. I'll ask him. I don't think he's very busy right now, so maybe we'll get a quick response.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 24 October 2005 09:40 (twenty years ago)

Wait, Andy, so did MC Serch specifically point out the School Daze thing, or just the black-frat thing? I'm curious (though I'll still take "Ice Ice Baby" over "Pop Goes the Weasel" any day.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 24 October 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

Don't know if it's Paula, but School Daze and Forever Your Girl both came out in 1988, so she would've been a known quantity at that point (although perhaps not when the movie was actually filmed).

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 12:23 (twenty years ago)

I was kind of poking fun at Serch's (sometimes comical) vigilance when it comes to that type of thing (as in "Pop Goes the Weasel"). I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to be true.

This thread, for some reason, made me remember the College Boyz.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 24 October 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

Am I the only person who thinks its odd to hear about a rap track angrily being accused of containing a previously performed chant?

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

and the end of School Daze is one of the most embarassing cappers I've ever seen in my life.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

I see no anger in this thread.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

I'm not talking about people here, but the initial controversy.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

"I know I've heard Hands In The Air rhymed with Like You Just Don't Care before, but...where?"

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, the "controversy" was retarded, inasmuch as it was a controversy, but that goes for pretty much any whining about Vanilla Ice's success, ever. And *School Daze* is indeed embarrassing, and not only at the end. But my *question* is still interesting, I think. I mean, I guess part of my point here is that, given how people have always tried so hard to fish around for complaints about "Ice Ice Baby," it's surprising I *didn't* ever hear anybody mention the movie.

― xhuxk, Monday, 24 October 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

Er, I think it wouldn't have been a controversy if it was done by anyone else than Vanilla Ice... That said, I'll join the crowd who says "Ice Ice Baby" is a great song. (Funnily enough, hating that song seems to be a minority opinion on ILM.)

(x-post)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

I think most people who weren't around for the initial Vanilla hype and backlash have no problem with "Ice". Personally, I don't see it as being any different or worse than, say, "The Humpty Dance" or "Bust a Move".

I recently heard Vanilla's love song for the first time, though. That's some scary shit.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Really, the thing that makes the song great isn't the chorus, it's Vanilla Ice's monotonous-yet-effective flow combined with the Queen bassline and the synthey beat. Listen to the tune after puffing some, it's positively trance-inducing!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

(x-post)

Have you heard the live album? I't one of the worst records I've ever had to subject my ears to.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

I thought the controversy about 'Ice Ice baby' was Mr Ice claiming that the bassline wasn't borrowed from 'Under Pressure'. I think he said 'Under Pressure' goes dum-di-di-dum-di-di-dum-dumm whereas 'IIB' goes dum-di-di-dum-di-di-dumm-dum.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

I may have got the two basslines mixed up just then.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

I don't think the bassline goes like either of those...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

nah, nah, man 'under pressure' is like dee-dee-dee-diggy-dee-dee dee-dee-dee-diggy-dee-dee, while 'ice ice baby' goes dee-dee-dee-diggy-dee-dee DEE-dee-dee-dee-diggy-dee-dee. They put that extra bit in there. it's totally different.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

though again, 'rapper circa 1991 or earlier using unlicensed backing track? MY STARS!'

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I sometimes wonder if VH-1 would still exist today if Vanilla Ice hadn't given them that soundbyte.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I don't think the bassline goes like either of those...

Yeah, you're right, I think I'm in the wrong key.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I heard Vanilla Ice was on some "I'm A Has-Been! Give Me A Makeover!" show, only he was really cranky and refused to accept any of the fashion advice (unlike Taylor Dayne, who was game). There's so much rage seething right under the surface in that guy that I find it really uncomfortable to watch him be interviewed.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

I saw that show and that's exactly what happened. He was on a makeover show, rejecting any and all makeover advice. In general, he's a scary man.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

the scene in The Surreal Life where he accepts his fate and takes over karaoke duties from the two drunk chicks from Baywatch and The Real World is one of the greatest spectacles of redemption I've ever witnessed on television, though.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 24 October 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

School Daze was one of many Spike Lee movies with terrible, ham-fisted endings.

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 24 October 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

David, Smell the Glove is here. Hello, Jeanine.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanilla Ice [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 1:17 PM
To: Andy_K
Subject: RE: Did you rip off black people?

Whats up, Freedom Got An AK!!!

Ugh! Your only like the milionth person to ask that!!! No offense but it makes my blood boil, know what I'm saying? Look here's how it is! The chant goes ice ice baby too cold, ice ice baby too cold. But in my song it goes ice ice baby too cold!! Ask like one of my thousand black friends. They know whats up!! I never ripped off any black people that is just crazy for anyone to say.

About to go on tour with ICP. I know you hate them and all but they are cool with me!

Catch you later,
VI

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 24 October 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

was one of the Real World girls Ruthie from Hawaii? I totally forgot that a few weeks ago she showed up at our local karaoke bar and did "Ice Ice Baby" with another girl. Was she recreating a scene from The Surreal Life? Dear god!

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

nah, I think it was Trishelle (sp?) that was on the Surreal Life. And that was a great scene.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

My memories might or might not help:

IMDB lists the film's release date as Feb. 12 '88, but I don't remember it playing widely until summer. By fall, when I went college in D.C., "Da Butt" was all over D.C. radio. Abdul's album, meanwhile, came out in June, but I don't remember "The Way That You Love Me" hitting the radio until that same fall term.

It seems unlikely that these two things would come out at (nearly) the same time, overlap in an obvious way, and nobody would make the connection until now.

But then, I missed the "Ice Ice Baby" connection. As for 3rd Bass, I liked their dis of the Beastie Boys better...

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 24 October 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

I think only white people missed this particular connection.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

I noticed the Ice Ice Baby part when I saw School Daze a couple years ago but I didn't think anything about it because for all I knew the phrase was first used by DJ Chappy Dee in some Bronx basement in 1979.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

DJ Chappy Dee (nee Alonzo DeJuarez) was best known for inventing the "Twiggit," which involves slowly moving the record back while vigorously jerking the fader back and forth.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

School Daze and Forever Your Girl both came out in 1988

But FYG took several months to make Paula a known commodity -- "Straight Up" was the third single released, after "Knocked Out" and "It's Just the Way You Love Me" flopped -- she didn't really make her mark until December.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:56 (twenty years ago)

paula abdul was not in School Daze. Check IMDB.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

I would like to see that Showtime movie she evidently did in 1997 about the woman who thinks her new boyfriend might be her former rapist.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

This is all moot, probably, but "The Way That You Love Me" didn't flop in D.C., at least...

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

Well, Vanilla Ice did claim that he went to a high school that was "100% black."

-- fitzroy ([email protected]

if this is true, it's awesome.

― ken taylrr never her (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Maybe he skipped a lot of classes? Like math?

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

It's entirely possible that he was rounding up/estimating: 999/1000, etc.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

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