| Mind Blowin' | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Vanilla Ice |
| Cover: | Vanilla-Ice-Mind-Blowin-308619.jpg |
| Recorded: | 1992 - 94 |
| Studio: | Luminous Sound Studios (Dallas, Texas) |
| Genre: | Hip hop |
| Label: | SBK |
| Producer: |
|
| Prev Title: | Cool as Ice |
| Prev Year: | 1991 |
| Next Title: | Back 2 Back Hits |
| Next Year: | 1998 |
Mind Blowin' is the second studio album by American rapper Vanilla Ice. Released on March 22, 1994, it is the rapper's final release on SBK Records. The album did not chart and received unfavorable reviews. Songs from the album made up one third of Vanilla Ice's tours during 1992–2010. The album shifted just 42,000 copies in the United States, a massive drop in comparison to his blockbuster debut album To the Extreme.[1] Despite this, lead single "Roll 'Em Up" received some airplay in Europe.[2] [3]
Ice followed up this album with 1998's Hard to Swallow.
Cyco of Insane Poetry worked on 10 songs on the album.[4]
The Wrath, one of the album's singles, was a reply to the single "Pop Goes the Weasel" by 3rd Bass.
Mark Wahlberg, then in the rap group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, had made negative remarks about Ice in one of his songs. Ice answered back in the song Hit 'em Hard which was mostly a diss track aimed at Mark, but Ice also included 3rd Bass and MC Hammer. Neither 3rd Bass nor Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch responded.
A lot of the lyrics were drug influenced and featured references to smoking marijuana, especially in the single Roll 'em Up. The song I Go Down pays tribute to Gang Starr, Mary J. Blige and Tupac Shakur.
Reviews were unfavorable. Entertainment Weekly reviewer James Bernard called the album "more clunky than funky".[5] Rolling Stone reviewer Danyel Smith called the song "Get Loose" "snappy", writing that although the lyrics are "inane", "the song is a thumping party, one of the few places where Ice loosens up. He sounds solid at the beginning of 'The Wrath' as well [...] He sounds easy and unaffected – close to sexy. But he doesn't keep it up: In 'Now and Forever,' a wet dream kind of song, Ice goes back to goofy lyrics [...] and his dry Max Headroom style."[6] AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "There isn't a single moment that establishes a distinct musical identity, and the whole thing is rather embarrassing."[7]
The album was named the "Least Essential Album Showcasing An Image Makeover" in The A.V. Club's list of the "Least Essential Albums of the '90s," cited as "an album that inspired almost no one to roll up the hootie mack, as instructed in its first single."[8]
Fame
The Wrath
Roll 'Em Up
Hit Em Hard
Smooth Interlude
Now & Forever
Iceman Party
Oh My Gosh
Minutes of Power
I Go Down
Phunky Rhymes
Blowin My Mind
Son of a Gun
Get Loose