1. Vanilla Ice was not the first white rapper - there was at least the Beastie Boys before (and much better and arguably authentic)
2. You
don't rip off on the track for a rap song because it is generally based on other tracks - originally it was by mixing records (as in the Sugar Hill
gang) and then it was sampled - when "Ice Ice
Baby" was done there were still lots of problems about copyright of the original sampled tune (notably with James
Brown who everybody used)as the music industry hadn't quite come to terms with the
music. A lot of them only came to terms with the original musicians if their song became a
hit
3. Crap record but he did try to do it properly - it is probably as much the music industry's fault as his that it became a
hit as they weren't exactly into promoting balck hip-hop or
rap acts who were much better
4. Wiggers pre-dated him - white rastas pre-dated him - Ahmet Ertegun pre-dated him - what's the problem?