If anything white Rappers today should feel fortunate, because thanks to Vanilla Ice, they know everything NOT to do, In terms of marketing and image mistakes.

The fact "Ice, Ice Baby' borrowed heavily from David Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure" is a moot point! It's an undeniably infectious tune. While the rhymes of "Hooked" are simple, the jazz-style beat makes up for it. I haven't listened to this album much since 1990. It's not perfect, but if you're looking for accessible pop-rap, "To the Extreme" is a fine choice.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:


People will always hate, but they can't deny...  Jan 21, 2006 By P. A. Parish "de facto standard"
This album was extremely popular when it came out. Everybody was playing "Ice Ice Baby" and nobody complained about it at the time. The same people that were bumping the song are now writing bad reviews because they feel stupid forever. Everyone has now labeled Vanilla Ice as the biggest wannabe rapper ever, so now this album is going to be considered lame. The truth of the matter is this album was pretty good for what it was. Vanilla Ice was a dancer that rapped, so take the album for what it's worth. It will still take you back to that time period if you let it. Vanilla Ice has appeal to the masses, he just ended up trying to be "too cool" and ruined his image. Don't let the haters fool you. This album might not be a rap masterpiece, but it has some catchy songs and during it's brief time was the hottest album around.

Everyone cracks on Vanilla, which he might deserve, but you can't deny this album. He wouldn't be so fun to crack on if he didn't have something going for him. This album was Vanilla Ice. If you ever wanted to know anything about Vanilla Ice or his music, get this album. Otherwise stop hating on the guy. He was an obvious wannabe, but you can't deny the album.

20 of 25 found the following review helpful:


Despite People Dissin' It This Was & Is a Good CD  Aug 01, 2005 By Dorrie Wheeler
Vanilla Ice has denounced his former musical self and critics now bash this CD but back in the early 90's this CD was hot and it still is. The album opens up with the track "Ice Ice Baby." The lyrics may be a little corny but this is a really great song. I enjoyed all of the singles from "To The Extreme" including--"Stop That Train" and "Play That Funky Music." The love songs--"I Love You," and "Having A Roni" are pretty cool too. I admit I had a major crush on Ice back in 1991 and when I met him in 98 he turned out to be a pretty cool dude. Even though the mass media seems to want to write this off as a dark moment in music I think it was--and is a great CD the defines the music of an era--the early 90's Hammer/C&C Music Factory, Young MC, feel good pop/rap era..

8 of 9 found the following review helpful:


Let's Be Honest  Jul 18, 2004 By Z. D. Houghton
Early 90's, I'll bet most of us were listening to this album. It's very easy to attack him now, but you don't think the same won't happen to the assembly-line MTV crap being put out today 14 years from now?

Another thing--there are entirely too many reviews here talking about Vanilla Ice dissing so and so or not respecting so and so when this happened. Unless I missed a book somewhere on lowlife history, the only people still concerned with any slights of the rap world from 14 years ago have either been gunned down or are probably upper-middle class white boys who wish desperately that they weren't. I await the response of the same informing me how "I jus don't know".

3 stars for nostalgia.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:


Go Back in Time  Aug 08, 2005 By Ben Kizer "BKDJ"
Remember back in the early 90's when this guy, MC Hammer, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and C & C Music Factory were ruling Top 40 radio? What's ironic about them all? Well, for starters, they all had short lived music careers. However, today if you were to play their music at a party or on a jukebox, listen to how many people will sing along to the lyrics or dance to the beat... pretty high number huh? People will try to act cool and act like they hate these old bands, but back in the day most people were jammin' this album with the others, and if they were to hear them today, they would get into it.

"To The Extreme" is a classic example of the music industry: lightning striking once not twice, a typical one hit wonder. "Ice Ice Baby" made Ice Man the top star in the music industry for a short period of time. However, once time passed, the song dropped off the charts, and Ice never could reach the pinnacle he once had and his name would go on to become a Trivial Pursuit answer to the question "What was the first rap song to reach number one on the Top 40?" Yeah, his career became kind of a joke after this album: associating himself with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II movie probably wasn't a good idea to be taken seriously as a hip hop artist. Then changing his name to V-Ice and becoming "heavy metal rap" wasn't probably a good idea. Neither was probably the move of going psycho on the MTV special "The Lamest Music Videos in History" (Jon Stewarts cries of "Vanilla! Vanilla!" while Ice was going ape on the studio made me roll on the floor laughing), and his latest move on the NBC show "Hit Me Baby One More Time", a show were a bunch of one hit wonder artists and bands from the 70's-90's competed for really nothing more than five more minutes to their initial fifteen. However, with this album, Ice had one hit single, and a few tracks that were worth listening to once in a while, and then a bunch of filler. Right now you might cringe when you think of the days when you would play this album 24/7, but don't tell me that you don't smile and sing along today when you hear "Ice Ice Baby", because chances are you still do, and if a song can still do that today, then it must of done something right. So for that reason, I give this album 3 and a half stars, which rounds up to four.

See all 153 customer reviews on Amazon.com