I was a nineties rapper – now I’ve made £15million by ‘doing nothing’
A TOP Nineties rapper has boasted of raking in a whopping £15million by “doing nothing.”
The iconic US hitmaker, 56, opened up on working smart and cashing in on his expert DIY skills to build a blossoming property portfolio.
Now Vanilla Ice‘s side-hustle has become his primary earner – and he’s reaping the rewards.
The Texas-born star is best-known for catchy track Ice Ice Baby, released in 1990.
He followed up with tracks Play That Funky Music and I Love You in the same year.
The one-hit wonder, real name Robert Van Winkle, followed up with tracks through until 2012, when a Zumba remix of Ice Ice Baby hit shelves.
Platinum Underground, his final album, was released in 2005.
After ditching a drug habit – which saw him overdose in 1994 – he turned his focus to home improvements and reality TV.
Vanilla Ice fronted his own on the D-I-Y Network show, The Vanilla Ice Project, from 2019 until 2019.
He followed up with The Vanilla Ice Home Show two years ago and has now told Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast how he “does nothing” to maintain his fortune.
Dressed in a baseball cap and camouflage print shorts, he told the Jackass host how he has snapped up an array of properties “around the country” – but didn’t use any of them for three years while he was touring.
Vanilla Ice said: “OK while I was young and dumb, I thought I had blew all that money.
“I bought a house next to Michael J Fox [actor] literally right across the street, he got his mailbox in his robe and I would see him there.
“I had homes all over the country right because you’re young, I just bought a bunch.
“I never used them, I thought I would use them while I was there because I don’t want to stay in hotels, it gets crazy.
“So I bought all these homes and thought s**t in three years I’ve never seen them, I thought I’d lost money on them, and I go ‘f**k I just blew a lot of money.’
“And I go ‘let’s just sell them’ and I sold them all, they go real quick, and I made millions.
“For doing nothing! I didn’t even change the carpet or anything.”
He added: “And I go ‘Holy s**t let’s buy a bunch more of them’ and I was buying homes all over the place, and still am.”
I go ‘let’s just sell them’ and I sold them all, they go real quick, and I made millions
Vanilla Ice
The star insisted: “I have a process now in how I buy the homes.”
Recently, the star’s real estate empire was valued at £15million.
He added he “puts out tax dockets on properties” and can then so purchase properties “for pennies on the dollar.”
POP HISTORY
The chart star wrote Ice, Ice Baby when he was just 16, using a sample of iconic Queen and David Bowie song, Under Pressure.
I go ‘Holy s**t let’s buy a bunch more of them’ and I was buying homes all over the place, and still am
Vanilla Ice
His rapper name came after he was dubbed “Vanilla” by his Black and Mexican friends on the breakdancing scene.
He also dated pop queen Madonna, yet told Steve-O’s podcast how the pair don’t keep in touch.
In another move away from the music scene, he made a seven-part BBC podcast The Disappearance of Shergar the Super Horse, about the famous 1981 Derby winner.
Two years after his racing triumph, the horse was kidnapped from its stable in Kildare and killed, with its body never found.