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What is Vanilla Ice's real name? One-hit wonder trolled after performing for maskless guests at Trump's NYE bash

Dressed in a tuxedo vest, Vanilla Ice performed his one song at the resort and fans were angry

‘Ice Ice Baby...’ Who doesn't love getting onto the dance floor and shake a leg to those melodious beats inspired by Queen and David Bowie's ‘Under Pressure’? Rapper Vanilla Ice has definitely left an everlasting imprint with that track featured in a reformatted version of the 1990 album ‘To the Extreme’. Nonetheless, he seems to have irked many fans with his decision to perform at Donald Trump's mask-less New Year bash at Mar-a-Lago.

Dressed in a tuxedo vest and white flat brim hat, Vanilla Ice performed his one song (yes, that one song you know) and sparked a wave of angry reactions and hilarious memes. If reports are to be believed, Trump himself missed the concert but videos of Donald Trump Jr's agonizing energy on the dance floor seem to be circulating all across social media. Along with him, other guests attending the Palm Beach’s $1000 per ticket concert included Rudy Giuliani, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Rep. Matt Gaetz. Catch the performance videos here: 

Who is Vanilla Ice?

Did you know rapper Vanilla Ice was born in Dallas, Texas in 1967 and his real name is Robert Matthew Van Winkle? Raised by his mother, Van Winkle never found out who his biological father was and took the name of the man his mother was married to. When he was four, his mother got divorced and then he switched between Dallas and Miami, where his new stepfather worked at a car dealership.

Hip hop ignited a passion in him at an early age and in an interview, he said, "It's a very big passion of mine because I love poetry. I was just heavily influenced by that whole movement and it's molded me into who I am today." When he was in his early teens, Van Winkle's friends often called him 'Vanilla' when he practiced breakdancing as he was reportedly the only one in the group who was not Black. At first, he didn't like the name but it somehow stuck to his identity.

When Van Winkle started his rap career, he became popular as "MC Vanilla" and his stage name was "Vanilla Ice" during a performance with a breakdance troupe. After moving to Texas, he learned to ride motorbikes and joined a group now called The Vanilla Ice Posse. When he was 16, the lyrics of ‘Ice Ice Baby...’ came to his mind. According to his old interviews, lyrics of the rhythmic track were inspired by Ice and DJ Shay's drug run that ends in a drive-by shooting.

What do Vanilla Ice fans feel?

No sooner did the clips go viral, than a string of people started bashing Vanilla Ice and the attendees. “I just saw a video of Kimberly Guilfoyle dancing to Vanilla Ice as she shouted the words ‘play that funky music White boy’ and I’m not sure I will make a full recovery,” one tweet read and another said, “Vanilla Ice didn’t seem to solve any problems last night. Still waiting to hear if the DJ revolved a hook. All signs point to no.”

"I am so mad that Vanilla Ice is MAGA that I drove 12 hours to my parent’s house to go in the attic and smash his most recent cassette," one fan said and another posted, "The difference between Vanilla Ice and Donald Trump is that Vanilla Ice knows he's a joke."

Why did his name become the butt of all jokes?

Amid all the controversy, Vanilla Ice's name became a butt of jokes and trolls couldn't stop targetting him. "Vanilla Ice has to change his name to Kanye East," one tweet read and another said, "Well, I guess it makes sense now that his name is Vanilla ICE."

A third wrote, "With a name like vanilla ice, and a nonexistent career, what else could he be? Only better name would be vanilla snowflake!" A fourth one added, "Vanilla Ice should just change his name to Vanilla Water Bc he old old." And a fifth tweeted, "I heard Vanilla Ice was going to change the name to Vanilla ISIS."

Vanilla Ice hasn't really been relevant since the mid-90s. Back in 2009, he hosted 'The Vanilla Ice Project' on DIY Network and his latest album 'WTF – Wisdom, Tenacity & Focus' released in 2011. Soon after that, Ice signed to Psychopathic Records.