everybody wanted to dance.” Van Winkle says happiness is the key to success, and that dancing is the key to hap- piness. “I just say to everybody, ‘Look, keep dancing,’” he says. “Let me tell you why. As long as you dance, you’re happy. My mom, it was the greatest advice anybody could ever give me, just whatever you do try to keep dancing because if you surround yourself with people that are dancing, you’re going to be happy. Because think about it. You cannot physically dance if you’re miserable. You can’t. “It’s infectious. And the more you dance, the happier you are. Dance through life, dance through all your problems dance through everything until the wheels fall off. That’s the greatest advice I can give you. That’s the Ice advice.” Before he found worldwide fame as a rapper, Van Winkle was a motocross cham- pion. These days there aren’t many other parallel careers he wants to attempt. Though he says he has “all kinds of ideas and stuff,” he’s busy enough with real es- tate and touring. “It’s overwhelming during the week,” he says. “During the weekend, I get to be the oldest teenager in town, and I’ll dance and that’s why I’m still in great shape. And then I still dance on Monday, but it’s basically be- ing a lousy adult and accepting responsibili- ties and paying bills. “I just ride this ride, the wave of life, and I enjoy it all,” he says. “But as long as I get to spend time with my kids, my family, and my little 3-year-old, it’s just, you know, the greatest thing ever.” Van Winkle still has another business venture, his own energy drink, which is about to hit Walmart, called, yup, “Vanilla Ice.” And though he’s all over the world spreading nostalgia, he’s most inspired at home. “It makes me feel alive,” he says. “I like it. I wake up and I have an agenda. I have a pur- pose. I have some meaning, and I have drive and ambition, which it takes to make all this happen.” But it’s not just the fashion that has changed (or not changed) in hip-hop. It’s not much of a dance genre anymore, Van Winkle says. “Well hip-hop is still hip-hop, no matter what,” he says. “It’s definitely changed. It’s gotten more melodic, you know, there’s been big, big artists that come in like these rap superstars like Dre and stuff. They kind of change the R&B-ness of hip-hop and kind of worked out a bunch of different ways to have kind of more of a cruising kind of a hip-hop, a slower melodic hip-hop, you know, but it was different because the en- ergy. You don’t dance too much of the hip- hop today.” He may hate the internet and the “snap- 2 craps,” but Van Winkle is up to date. He likes Future, Drake and Kodak Black. He says he watches tons of dance videos on TikTok and he likes to see how moves have evolved since his days as a breakdancer (which earned him his nickname, since he was white). “The difference is hip-hop is still here, but the culture of it, the pop culture of it is not, which means the fashion,” he says. “I mean, even the new hip-hoppers today are wearing skinny jeans now, you know, that’s what we started off with and the ‘90s, you know, before we went to the saggy crotch so that we could dance and do the splits more.” “At least they’re not sagging them to the to their ankles anymore,” he says with his huge laugh. “Ice, Ice, Baby” is not his favorite song. “I just let the fans decide what they like and they gravitate towards this or that,” he says. “Yeah, we can’t pick our fans, they pick us. We can’t pick the songs, they pick “DANCE THROUGH LIFE, DANCE THROUGH ALL YOUR PROBLEMS DANCE THROUGH EVERYTHING UNTIL THE WHEELS FALL OFF. THAT’S THE GREATEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU. THAT’S THE ICE ADVICE.” - VANILLA ICE themselves. You just do what you do, but you know, it’s just amazing. There’s so many things that just spawned off of the success of the music and the impact. But you know, it really does define one of the greatest generations ever. And I’m just hon- ored to be a part of it.” He sees kids these days chasing carrots that are “dangling in every direction.” “This social media stuff, just the over-in- formation stuff, got them confused,” he says. “I see my kids, man. I try to tell them. Listen, you just need to experience the ’90s to understand where all this came from, be- cause your generation, the millennials, did not invent the computer. We did, we in- vented it, but we didn’t grow up with it, but now we’re watching our kids that grew up with it and the effect from it. So I have to tell them, you know, watch out. Don’t full- on follow everything, the Kardashians do you know?” But Van Winkle is not blind to the eco- nomic benefits and freedom afforded by so- cial media. “I think everybody’s just gotten smarter and more educated towards the art of per- suasion,” he says, “and they’ve all got a salesman pitch, and everybody’s basically kind of turning into a bunch of car sales- men to generate views on their TikTok or their Instagram, or whatever they’re doing. They’re trying to build their funnel and that’s a good thing to do because I see a lot of people making money at home on Tik- Tok and different ways to monetize all the views and stuff. “But you know, the way it works is we all go to sleep and we wake up the same way, you know, we get a cup of coffee, we yawn, we stretch, whatever, right? And it’s not that — it’s what you do during the day that makes a difference. You know, we got an option: We can either sit there and twiddle our thumbs or we can go out and follow our dreams and make them come true to real- ity. Or you can play Fortnite all day, what- ever you want.” UPCOMING SHOWS 214-350-1904 11AM TO CLOSE WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY 10261 Technology Blvd E, Dallas, TX CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFO! www.amplified-live.com @AMPLIVETX @AMPLIVETX @AMPLIFIEDLIVETX 21 dallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | ADULT | CLASSIFIED | DALLAS OBSERVER APRIL 21-27, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | dallasobserver.com
