Vanilla Ice’s explanation of how he didn’t copy David Bowie and Queen's Under Pressure leaves people baffled
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: @hello.nostalgia.co/TikTok
People have been left baffled over an unearthed video of Vanilla Ice explaining how he didn't copy David Bowie and Queen's Under Pressure.
You can watch the explanation below:
While Under Pressure, which was released in 1981, is one of the most recognisable tunes of all time, Vanilla Ice's smash hit, Ice Ice Baby, released in 1990 is also one of the catchiest tunes in history.
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One reason for this could be that both songs are very similar. In fact, there was a huge dispute between Vanilla Ice, Queen and David Bowie, which was eventually settled out of court after Queen and Bowie sued Vanilla for unauthorised use.
Vanilla defended himself at the time by saying he had added an extra note, and in the throwback clip, he can be heard trying to explain the difference.
"It's not the same base line," he says, before trying to explain what he means by singing out both.
But TikTokers were baffled, claiming both sounded exactly the same.
One person wrote: "Exact same bass line of Under Pressure."
While another said: "Every time one or the other comes on the radio i get confused as to which is which."
And a third added: “'Ours goes;' *proceeds to recite pretty much exactly the same thing*."
Meanwhile a fourth commented: "He couldn’t even say that with a straight face."
And a fifth joked: "This is me explaining my history paper to my professor he says I plagiarised."
Recently, there was a misunderstanding over who actually wrote the song, Ice Ice Baby.
Mario 'Chocolate' Johnson - allegedly co-writer - spoke about the track last year and claimed Vanilla Ice had no part in it.
“Every song I did on that album, he credited himself,” Johnson told The Art Of Dialogue.
“He said he wrote ‘Ice Ice Baby’ at 16. He didn’t write no parts of that song, and he really believed it. So imagine that. People think that we had a problem with ‘Ice Ice Baby'. We didn’t. ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was already in the can, paperwork done.
“We had a problem that when the record came out, I was sent to Texas to work with him on the album. I did nine songs, and he was supposed to pick five that I was getting paid for, but he ended up putting all nine on the album.”