Multiple artists have dropped out of the Donald Trump-backed “Freedom 250” festival this summer. But Vanilla Ice is sticking to his guns and plans to keep his gig at the D.C. event.
According to Vanilla Ice, “music is not political” — and he said he would perform for Russian president Vladimir Putin if given the chance.
“I don’t even vote, so I don’t even care,” the rapper in an interview with TMZ posted Friday. Vanilla Ice said that if former President Joe Biden called up asked him to perform, “I’d go play. It’s not a big thing. You you play for your fans. You know, we don’t get a chance to pick our fans. They pick us. And I’ll go play for Putin and I’ll play in Iran if you want. It don’t matter.”
Vanilla Ice is currently one of just two acts to have confirmed they were still playing the Freedom 250 festival, alongside Fab Morvan of 1980s duo Milli Vanilli.
Five of the nine acts originally announced by Freedom 250 have officially announced they were dropping out: Bret Michaels, Young MC, Morris Day, Martina McBride and the Commodores. Meanwhile, Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory said he was considering potentially dropping out but that he was inclined to do the gig. So far only, of lineup of nine artists previously announced, only Flo Rida has not weighed in on the Freedom 250 festival.
Vanilla Ice (real name: Robert Van Winkle) is a one-hit wonder whose single “Ice Ice Baby” topped the charts nearly 36 years ago. He’s currently scheduled to perform June 26 at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
About performing at Freedom 250, Vanilla Ice said, “I’m here to party with America, man. Music is made to bring people together, and that’s what we’re here to do, man. We’re just going to represent the ’90s. I don’t take anything too serious. I don’t think anybody else should. I think that we should just dance. You know, it’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and you got to get out and pursue it with dance.”
“You know, it’s all about not taking anything too serious, man,” the rapped said in the interview. “And everybody’s opinionated and it seems like the world is like a snow globe today. It’s all shaken up, man.”
Vanilla Ice continued: “I’m from the ’80s and ’90s. We didn’t take all this mess so serious… We had fanny packs and ripped our back seats out and put in subwoofers. Come on, man. This is a celebration of America 250, the birthday of our country that we were born in. Come on. Enjoy the dancing.”
“It’s just music,” he added. “What’s the big deal, man? We’re just entertainers.”
English (US) ·