Platinum Underground
| Platinum Underground | ||||
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| Studio album by Vanilla Ice | ||||
| Released | August 16, 2005 | |||
| Recorded | 2004–2005 | |||
| Genre | Hardcore hip hop, horrorcore, reggae, hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 64:06 | |||
| Label | Ultrax | |||
| Producer | Vanilla Ice, DJ Dont Play, The Trak Starz, Seven Antonopoulos, Gemini, DJ Street, Semaj Foreman | |||
| Vanilla Ice chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Platinum Underground | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
Platinum Underground is the fifth studio album by American rapper Vanilla Ice. Released on August 16, 2005, it is the rapper's third independent release, after Hooked and Bi-Polar. Allmusic reviewer Rob Theakston panned the album, writing that it "has more bad spots in it than most".
The title alludes to Ice's current tours playing to fans of underground music, in contrast to his history as an RIAA certified platinum artist. The followed up the album with 2011's W.T.F..
Platinum Underground was the first Vanilla Ice album with original content released by Ultrax since 1994. Van Vinkle was interested in using all the different genres he had experiences with in earlier albums, not focusing on marketing or trying to attract a certain audience. Songs like "Trailer Park Mullet Wars" and "Step Up or Shut Up" were a hybrid mix of different heavy metal sounds, while "Say Goodbye" and "Bounce" were new school hip hop. The rest of the album featured mixes of Horrorcore, Reggae and Hardcore hip hop.
The name of the album was a reference to Van Winkel's underground hip hop status while still having a loyal fanbase and having gone Platinum in the past. Ultrax, with hopes of being able to sell the album to a mass audience released two versions of the album, one censored.
"Step Up or Shut Up" was the first song to premiere of the album, originally played during Vanilla Ice's 2003 Metal Tour. "Detonator" and "O.K.S. - Original Killa Shit" were originally made for Bi-Polar.
After appearing on the second season of The Surreal Life, Ice was more willing to accept his past after conversations with Tammy Faye Messner, who also appears on the album. With interest to re-visit the past, Ice re-recorded Ice Ice Baby as he performs it currently during his tours. After getting requests to do Ninja Rap live, Ice decided to make a song entitled "Ninja Rap 2" (also known as "Go Ninja Go") which was set to be a hardcore remix. Despite the name, the song has very little connections to Van Vinkle's original 1991 single, but rather stays true to Ice's current lyricism, where Ice talks about his appreciation to his fans, his love to perform at clubs and playing at the Gathering of the Juggalos with Insane Clown Posse. "Ninja Rap 2" was the first song to be released from Platinum Underground and was available to download for free off of Ice's official website.
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