Interesting Vanilla Ice Interview

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Robert Van Winkle, the rapper most people know as Vanilla Ice, rose to fame in the early 1990s with the hit single “Ice Ice Baby.” In recent years, however, Mr. Van Winkle has been developing a different area of expertise — renovating and selling homes. On Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. E.S.T., the DIY Network will show the first episode of “The Vanilla Ice Project,” Mr. Van Winkle’s new reality series. The show, which documents his skills as a handyman, follows him and a team of workers as they renovate a 7,000-square-foot, six-bedroom house in Palm Beach, Fla.
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Moris Moreno for The New York Times

Are people surprised by your new career?

It’s funny, because it’s not a new career direction. I’ve been doing this for over 13 years.

I was building homes in Florida, from $300,000 to $1.5 million. The bottom dropped out of the real estate market, but I learned how to go to these seminars and read these books — Robert Shemin is one of my favorite authors. He’s a guy that I learned a lot from, by reading his books, about how to adjust to the market as it evolves. One of the adjustments was, O.K., now you can buy a foreclosed, or tax-lien or short-sale home for a lot less than you can build a home.

Did you start building and renovating homes because you were interested in design?

Not at all. Basically, when I had a lot of money when I was younger, I said — like most rock stars who are young and dumb — let me go buy a bunch of houses. So I bought houses in L.A., in Laurel Canyon right next door to Michael J. Fox; on Star Island, next door to Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith; in Utah; and on Bleecker Street in New York City.

Three years went by. I never used any of them, and I thought it was the worst investment of my life. So I said, “Let’s sell everything, and I’ll have one primary house here in Miami.”

When I sold them, I made, on each one of them, $300,000 to $400,000. I stopped in my tracks and said, “It can’t be that easy.” But it was.

Tell me about the house in Palm Beach.

It was a tax-lien property. We auctioned on it. The house, before I even touched it, already appraised at over $800,000, and I got it for $400,000, so I had a lot of room to play with. It was completely gutted — they took every cabinet, every sink, every toilet, every door and door frame.

It worked out good for me, because it shows really nasty on the show, and then we fix it up amazing. I use a lot of new things in this house that people have never seen in home building before, like ultra-modern, cool, high-tech things that even if you don’t care about Vanilla Ice you’re going to be entertained by.

Like what?

Most people aren’t accustomed to seeing mood lighting. If you’re in a bad mood, the lights will go red, and they’ll go blue if you’re in a good mood.

How does that work?

There’s some kind of sensor, like I guess a mood-ring sensor thing. I really don’t know, I still can’t figure out how it works, but it’s amazing. They’re all done in fiber optics. When they’re off, you can’t tell they’re in the house.

What else?

We have an infinity edge pool. We put all these fire pods in place and stuff. We have these planters with a fan inside — it shoots the gas up, and the flame actually spins about eight feet high on both sides of the infinity edge pool. Inside the planter, there are four real bright LED lights that hit that spinning fire. So you get fire that changes colors.

Do you have a different approach to design than other developers do?

You know, it’s not “pimp this house.” I don’t do it that way. I do it with professionalism, and what I’ve learned through Robert Shemin and these seminars and whatnot. Basically, you want it to appeal to the masses. You do your earth-toned colors. You want to keep it neutral, warm and welcoming. Sort of like the decorative sense, and the color advice, that a real designer would do for a model home for Toll Brothers.

But it sounds like you use more glam elements.

Yeah, we do that, but we keep it inoffensive, so to speak, with the colors and everything.

Where did you learn your construction skills?

I picked them up along the way. I’m a guy that kind of actually likes the workout part of it, and I take pride in it.

It’s fun swinging a hammer, man, and being one of the guys. Your workers look at you like you’re one of them.

But in your case, the workers can also say, “Hey, I’m renovating a house with Vanilla Ice.”

Oh, yeah, that works as well.

[JumpinJack AJ]

I've liked Vanilla Ice for the past 10 years. Not so much his music, but I watched in on various reality shows. I disliked him with a great passion up until that point. After seeing him just be himself on these show, I think he's actually be a cool person to kick it with. The show doesn't interest me too much but when I have a chance to watch it, I will. I've seen him promoting this show on TV for weeks.