Hard to Swallow
Encyclopedia
Hard to Swallow is the third studio album
by American
rapper
Robert Van Winkle under the name Vanilla Ice
. Released by Republic Records
in 1998, the album was the first album the performer recorded after a four year hiatus following the 1994 release of Mind Blowin. Van Winkle intended the new musical direction found on the album as an attempt to move away from hip hop music
and discard his former pop
image. Hard to Swallow instead featured what Van Winkle described as "skate rock", a fusion of heavy metal
, punk rock
and hip hop. The album features appearances from Amen
vocalist Casey Chaos
, Bloodhound Gang
vocalist Jimmy Pop
, and Insane Poetry
front man Cyco. Session musicians included drummer Shannon Larkin
, keyboardist Scott Borland
, and Snot
guitarist Sonny Mayo
.
Van Winkle took an interest in the musical style found on Hard to Swallow while performing as a member of a Miami grunge
band, and was able to develop this sound through a friendship with producer Ross Robinson
, with whom he shared an interest in motocross
racing. Robinson produced the album after being advised against working with Van Winkle. The album's darker lyrical subject matter developed from conversations between Robinson and Van Winkle, in which Robinson encouraged him to write about his past. Subjects included Van Winkle's abusive childhood, drug addiction and struggles with fame. Although Republic Records believed that the album would revive Vanilla Ice's career, it received largely negative reviews and did not chart.
band." Van Winkle had wanted to perform more hip hop-influenced rock music, but states that the band "didn't know how to play this sound that I was looking for."
During a conversation with Monty Lipman, a founder of Republic Records
and former SBK Records
promoter, Lipman asked if Van Winkle had heard of Ross Robinson
. When Van Winkle told him that he hadn't, Lipman told Van Winkle some of the bands that Robinson had worked with, such as Korn
, Limp Bizkit
, Sepultura
and Deftones
, and that Robinson was interested in working with Van Winkle.
Van Winkle states that he and Robinson were "totally clicking right off the bat" when it was discovered that they both shared an interest in motocross
racing.
According to Robinson, others had attempted to persuade him not to produce the album. "People kept saying to me, 'It might hurt your name, it might hurt your reputation. I said, 'Then I'm doing it.' It's the most punk-rock
thing you could do."
Van Winkle states that "It's unbelievable how this whole thing just came about. I really believe that it was an action of God. God pushing my wave and riding it. And Ross is one of those people and Monty is one of those people that God put in front of me and I'm being blessed right now."
and members of Korn and the Bloodhound Gang
. Only the latter band's lead vocalist, Jimmy Pop
, appeared on the final album. "Freestyle" features an appearance by Cyco, a founding member of the influential horrorcore
group Insane Poetry
. Preceding the release of the album, executives at Republic Records
compared Vanilla Ice's career direction to the revival of actor John Travolta
as a result of the success of Pulp Fiction
, and believed that Vanilla Ice would be similarly successful.
Drummer Shannon Larkin
stated of the album "I'm proud of that one. That was a killer record. Producer Ross Robinson is very demanding when it comes to drums in the studio. Everything had to be 110% for that guy, and I love him for that." Van Winkle stated of working with Robinson, "The vibe was totally so cool. We had the album finished in a month and a half because we kept the vibe."
, punk rock
and hip hop. Van Winkle stated that "I wanted to express myself in a very intense way, and there was no way it was going to happen with a drum machine. Basically, I'm bored with drum machines and samples and stuff. With a band, they can build the energy around me." Many critics have noticed a similarity between the style of music present on Hard to Swallow and that of bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Van Winkle states that although he knew of the bands, he "didn't even listen to [...] any of them" before he made the album, and he was not trying to imitate the musical style of the bands. "It's just we have the same producer, and some of the guitars between that and Limp Bizkit are gonna sound similar. That's what happens when you've got the same guy producing them. [...] I had heard the Deftones more than any of them."
The album features a noticeably darker sound and lyrical subject matter than Vanilla Ice's previous albums, such as To The Extreme
and Mind Blowin. The album was described by CNN
as a "shrill confessional" on which the performer "flays his '80s persona, his fractured family and Attention Deficit Disorder, which he has." Van Winkle states that "A lot of people think I'm satanic now that they've heard the record, and it's so dark. But that's not true. It just comes out dark because that's the way I feel I've been treated. It's just real, man, that's all I can say about it. There's no strings attached." Van Winkle states that the album "wasn't intended to be so dark. I opened up to Ross and I told him a lot of things that happened to me in the past. It was like, really deep conversation, and he was like, you should write about that. And I was like, dude, I didn't want people to judge me for that. But he was right. It was like total therapy."
The subjects focused on in the album's lyrics include Van Winkle's abusive childhood and drug addiction. Van Winkle stated that "I wrote 'Fuck Me' 'cause I know how I've been perceived. "I can look back at the whole Vanilla Ice thing, and it was played way out. It was just an image thing. I was always real to the music. But it built a huge hurdle for me to get over musically. A lot of people didn't even want to admit they bought a Vanilla Ice record." "Too Cold" is a rap rock
remake of Vanilla Ice's biggest hit, "Ice Ice Baby
". Van Winkle states that he remade the song because "I wanted to let people know that I'm not running from anything. This is me. This is what I'm about. I think the music speaks for itself. If the music was whack, nobody'd even care to hear anything about no Vanilla Ice. I just think the music is so strong people are kinda comin' out of the closet. It's like, 'You know, hey, I bought it back in the day, and the new stuff is slammin'.' I think there's some hip-hop influenced, stage-diving, body piercing, tattooed white boys out there who are embracing this new sound." "Too Cold" was originally intended to be released as a hidden track
or B-side
.
wrote that "If history is any guide, Vanilla Ice's adoption of rap-metal means that hard rock is about to move on." Richard Torres of Rolling Stone
gave the album two out of five stars, writing that while "nothing, however, can redeem Ice's wack boasting," the album "isn't half-bad." The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
gave the album three out of five stars. The Iowa State Daily called the album "the greatest pop culture comeback of all time". The album did not chart. The album appeared on The A.V. Club
's list of the "Least Essential Albums of the '90s," at number 24 on Maxim
's list of the "30 Worst Albums of All Time", and number 26 on Q
s list of the "50 Worst Albums Ever!" Vanilla Ice released a follow-up album, Bi-Polar, in 2001, which continued the performer's artistic and career direction.
Additional Musicians
Production
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
Robert Van Winkle under the name Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice
Robert Matthew Van Winkle , best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality...
. Released by Republic Records
Republic Records
Republic Records was a record label and subsidiary of Universal Motown Republic Group. They originally went by the name Cheese Factory Records...
in 1998, the album was the first album the performer recorded after a four year hiatus following the 1994 release of Mind Blowin. Van Winkle intended the new musical direction found on the album as an attempt to move away from hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and discard his former pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
image. Hard to Swallow instead featured what Van Winkle described as "skate rock", a fusion of heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and hip hop. The album features appearances from Amen
Amen (band)
Amen is a hardcore punk-influenced band formed in 1994.The band has an almost constantly rotating lineup, with founder Casey Chaos remaining as the only constant member throughout...
vocalist Casey Chaos
Casey Chaos
Casey Chaos is the frontman and guitarist of punk rock band Amen. After numerous line-up changes he is the only remaining founding member of the band. He is known for his energetic stage performance...
, Bloodhound Gang
Bloodhound Gang
Bloodhound Gang is a Collegeville, Pennsylvania-based American comedy band, although it began as a rap group and gradually changed its genre throughout the years...
vocalist Jimmy Pop
Jimmy Pop
Jimmy Pop is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and founding member of the band Bloodhound Gang.-Biography:After graduating from Perkiomen Valley High School in 1990, he studied mass communication and history at Temple...
, and Insane Poetry
Insane Poetry
Insane Poetry is an American hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1988, Insane Poetry is considered to be one of the first horrorcore groups.-History:...
front man Cyco. Session musicians included drummer Shannon Larkin
Shannon Larkin
Shannon Larkin, born James Shannon Larkin on April 24, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, is a musician best known for being the drummer of the heavy metal band Godsmack. He replaced the previous drummer Tommy Stewart in June 2002...
, keyboardist Scott Borland
Scott Borland
Scott Borland is a musician from the United States. He is the founder of the band Big Dumb Face and a past member of Limp Bizkit.-References:...
, and Snot
Snot (band)
Snot was an American rock band from Santa Barbara, California. Formed in 1995, the band released their debut studio album Get Some with founding vocalist Lynn Strait in 1997 and disbanded after his death in 1998. In 2008, the lineup of guitarists Mike Doling and Sonny Mayo, bassist John Fahnestock...
guitarist Sonny Mayo
Sonny Mayo
Sonny Mayo is an American guitarist, songwriter, and music producer. He began playing in a thrash metal band called Silence in the late '80's. Silence , regularly sold out venues in the DC Metro area including the famous "Bayou" in Georgetown...
.
Van Winkle took an interest in the musical style found on Hard to Swallow while performing as a member of a Miami grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
band, and was able to develop this sound through a friendship with producer Ross Robinson
Ross Robinson
Ross Robinson, son of Byron Katie, is an American multi-platinum music producer, who has discovered successful acts such as Korn, At the Drive-In, Glassjaw, Repeater, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit. Robinson has also worked with Machine Head, Vanilla Ice, The Cure, Sepultura and many others...
, with whom he shared an interest in motocross
Motocross
Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...
racing. Robinson produced the album after being advised against working with Van Winkle. The album's darker lyrical subject matter developed from conversations between Robinson and Van Winkle, in which Robinson encouraged him to write about his past. Subjects included Van Winkle's abusive childhood, drug addiction and struggles with fame. Although Republic Records believed that the album would revive Vanilla Ice's career, it received largely negative reviews and did not chart.
History
Robert Van Winkle, better known under the stage name Vanilla Ice, was briefly a member of a band called Pickin' Scabs, which he described as being "like a grungeGrunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
band." Van Winkle had wanted to perform more hip hop-influenced rock music, but states that the band "didn't know how to play this sound that I was looking for."
During a conversation with Monty Lipman, a founder of Republic Records
Republic Records
Republic Records was a record label and subsidiary of Universal Motown Republic Group. They originally went by the name Cheese Factory Records...
and former SBK Records
SBK Records
SBK Records was a record label of the EMI Group that was founded in 1988.Stephen Swid, Martin Bandier, and Charles Koppelman formed the production company SBK in 1989 after they purchased the music publishing division of CBS Records in 1986....
promoter, Lipman asked if Van Winkle had heard of Ross Robinson
Ross Robinson
Ross Robinson, son of Byron Katie, is an American multi-platinum music producer, who has discovered successful acts such as Korn, At the Drive-In, Glassjaw, Repeater, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit. Robinson has also worked with Machine Head, Vanilla Ice, The Cure, Sepultura and many others...
. When Van Winkle told him that he hadn't, Lipman told Van Winkle some of the bands that Robinson had worked with, such as Korn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
, Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 1995, the group's lineup consists of Fred Durst , Wes Borland , Sam Rivers , John Otto and DJ Lethal . The band achieved mainstream success with their second studio album Significant Other, released in 1999...
, Sepultura
Sepultura
Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...
and Deftones
Deftones
Deftones are an American alternative metal band from Sacramento, California, founded in 1988. The band consists of Chino Moreno , Stephen Carpenter , Chi Cheng , Frank Delgado , and Abe Cunningham . Currently Sergio Vega is standing in on bass while Cheng recovers from a car accident...
, and that Robinson was interested in working with Van Winkle.
Van Winkle states that he and Robinson were "totally clicking right off the bat" when it was discovered that they both shared an interest in motocross
Motocross
Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...
racing.
According to Robinson, others had attempted to persuade him not to produce the album. "People kept saying to me, 'It might hurt your name, it might hurt your reputation. I said, 'Then I'm doing it.' It's the most punk-rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
thing you could do."
Van Winkle states that "It's unbelievable how this whole thing just came about. I really believe that it was an action of God. God pushing my wave and riding it. And Ross is one of those people and Monty is one of those people that God put in front of me and I'm being blessed right now."
Production
Initial publicity claimed that the album would feature guest appearances by Lenny KravitzLenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
and members of Korn and the Bloodhound Gang
Bloodhound Gang
Bloodhound Gang is a Collegeville, Pennsylvania-based American comedy band, although it began as a rap group and gradually changed its genre throughout the years...
. Only the latter band's lead vocalist, Jimmy Pop
Jimmy Pop
Jimmy Pop is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and founding member of the band Bloodhound Gang.-Biography:After graduating from Perkiomen Valley High School in 1990, he studied mass communication and history at Temple...
, appeared on the final album. "Freestyle" features an appearance by Cyco, a founding member of the influential horrorcore
Horrorcore
Horrorcore is a subgenre of hip hop music based in horror-themed lyrical content and imagery. While the style is rarely popular, some performers have sold well in the mainstream scene.-Origins:...
group Insane Poetry
Insane Poetry
Insane Poetry is an American hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1988, Insane Poetry is considered to be one of the first horrorcore groups.-History:...
. Preceding the release of the album, executives at Republic Records
Republic Records
Republic Records was a record label and subsidiary of Universal Motown Republic Group. They originally went by the name Cheese Factory Records...
compared Vanilla Ice's career direction to the revival of actor John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
as a result of the success of Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
, and believed that Vanilla Ice would be similarly successful.
Drummer Shannon Larkin
Shannon Larkin
Shannon Larkin, born James Shannon Larkin on April 24, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, is a musician best known for being the drummer of the heavy metal band Godsmack. He replaced the previous drummer Tommy Stewart in June 2002...
stated of the album "I'm proud of that one. That was a killer record. Producer Ross Robinson is very demanding when it comes to drums in the studio. Everything had to be 110% for that guy, and I love him for that." Van Winkle stated of working with Robinson, "The vibe was totally so cool. We had the album finished in a month and a half because we kept the vibe."
Musical and lyrical style
In the early stages of the album's development, it was promoted as an album of "high-energy hip-hop." Republic Records later described the album's musical style as "aggressive rock" in the stages preceding the album's release. Vanilla Ice referred to the album's musical style as "skate rock." The album's dark and thick sound fuses elements of heavy metalHeavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and hip hop. Van Winkle stated that "I wanted to express myself in a very intense way, and there was no way it was going to happen with a drum machine. Basically, I'm bored with drum machines and samples and stuff. With a band, they can build the energy around me." Many critics have noticed a similarity between the style of music present on Hard to Swallow and that of bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Van Winkle states that although he knew of the bands, he "didn't even listen to [...] any of them" before he made the album, and he was not trying to imitate the musical style of the bands. "It's just we have the same producer, and some of the guitars between that and Limp Bizkit are gonna sound similar. That's what happens when you've got the same guy producing them. [...] I had heard the Deftones more than any of them."
The album features a noticeably darker sound and lyrical subject matter than Vanilla Ice's previous albums, such as To The Extreme
To the Extreme
To the Extreme is the major label debut studio album of American rapper Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle. Released in 1990, it is Van Winkle's best selling album. The album was initially released in 1989 by independent record label Ichiban Records under the title Hooked. Van Winkle signed to SBK...
and Mind Blowin. The album was described by CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
as a "shrill confessional" on which the performer "flays his '80s persona, his fractured family and Attention Deficit Disorder, which he has." Van Winkle states that "A lot of people think I'm satanic now that they've heard the record, and it's so dark. But that's not true. It just comes out dark because that's the way I feel I've been treated. It's just real, man, that's all I can say about it. There's no strings attached." Van Winkle states that the album "wasn't intended to be so dark. I opened up to Ross and I told him a lot of things that happened to me in the past. It was like, really deep conversation, and he was like, you should write about that. And I was like, dude, I didn't want people to judge me for that. But he was right. It was like total therapy."
The subjects focused on in the album's lyrics include Van Winkle's abusive childhood and drug addiction. Van Winkle stated that "I wrote 'Fuck Me' 'cause I know how I've been perceived. "I can look back at the whole Vanilla Ice thing, and it was played way out. It was just an image thing. I was always real to the music. But it built a huge hurdle for me to get over musically. A lot of people didn't even want to admit they bought a Vanilla Ice record." "Too Cold" is a rap rock
Rap rock
Rap rock is a cross-genre fusing vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock is often confused with rap metal and rapcore, subgenres that include heavy metal-oriented and hardcore punk-oriented bands, respectively....
remake of Vanilla Ice's biggest hit, "Ice Ice Baby
Ice Ice Baby
"Ice Ice Baby" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake. The song samples the bassline of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, who did not initially receive songwriting credit or royalties until after it had become a hit...
". Van Winkle states that he remade the song because "I wanted to let people know that I'm not running from anything. This is me. This is what I'm about. I think the music speaks for itself. If the music was whack, nobody'd even care to hear anything about no Vanilla Ice. I just think the music is so strong people are kinda comin' out of the closet. It's like, 'You know, hey, I bought it back in the day, and the new stuff is slammin'.' I think there's some hip-hop influenced, stage-diving, body piercing, tattooed white boys out there who are embracing this new sound." "Too Cold" was originally intended to be released as a hidden track
Hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
or B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
.
Response
"Too Cold" became a radio hit in some markets. Reviews of the album were generally negative. A reviewer for the New Times in Los Angeles referred to the album as "stupid, exploitive, derivative rap-metal by the man who once did nearly irrepairable damage to hip-hop." Jon Pareles of The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that "If history is any guide, Vanilla Ice's adoption of rap-metal means that hard rock is about to move on." Richard Torres of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
gave the album two out of five stars, writing that while "nothing, however, can redeem Ice's wack boasting," the album "isn't half-bad." The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Rolling Stone Album Guide, previously known as The Rolling Stone Record Guide, is a book that, along with its sister publication Rolling Stone magazine, contains professional reviews of popular music...
gave the album three out of five stars. The Iowa State Daily called the album "the greatest pop culture comeback of all time". The album did not chart. The album appeared on The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
's list of the "Least Essential Albums of the '90s," at number 24 on Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
's list of the "30 Worst Albums of All Time", and number 26 on Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
s list of the "50 Worst Albums Ever!" Vanilla Ice released a follow-up album, Bi-Polar, in 2001, which continued the performer's artistic and career direction.
Track listing
Personnel
Band- Rob Van WinkleVanilla IceRobert Matthew Van Winkle , best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality...
— lead vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the... - Shannon LarkinShannon LarkinShannon Larkin, born James Shannon Larkin on April 24, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, is a musician best known for being the drummer of the heavy metal band Godsmack. He replaced the previous drummer Tommy Stewart in June 2002...
— drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Sonny MayoSonny MayoSonny Mayo is an American guitarist, songwriter, and music producer. He began playing in a thrash metal band called Silence in the late '80's. Silence , regularly sold out venues in the DC Metro area including the famous "Bayou" in Georgetown...
— guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure... - Doug Ordito and Scott BorlandScott BorlandScott Borland is a musician from the United States. He is the founder of the band Big Dumb Face and a past member of Limp Bizkit.-References:...
— bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Scott Borland — keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
- DJ Swamp — scratchesScratchingScratching is a DJ or turntablist technique used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while optionally manipulating the crossfader on a DJ mixer. While scratching is most commonly associated with hip hop music, since the late 1980s, it has been used...
Additional Musicians
- Casey ChaosCasey ChaosCasey Chaos is the frontman and guitarist of punk rock band Amen. After numerous line-up changes he is the only remaining founding member of the band. He is known for his energetic stage performance...
— guest vocals on "A.D.D." and "Fuck Me" - Cyco, Zero, Jimmy Pop AliJimmy PopJimmy Pop is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and founding member of the band Bloodhound Gang.-Biography:After graduating from Perkiomen Valley High School in 1990, he studied mass communication and history at Temple...
, and Rod J — additional vocals
Production
- Ross RobinsonRoss RobinsonRoss Robinson, son of Byron Katie, is an American multi-platinum music producer, who has discovered successful acts such as Korn, At the Drive-In, Glassjaw, Repeater, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit. Robinson has also worked with Machine Head, Vanilla Ice, The Cure, Sepultura and many others...
— producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixingMixing consoleIn professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer... - Chuck Johnson — recording engineer, mixing
- Rob Agnello — sound engineer
- Eddy Schreyer — masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- Gene Grimaldi — editing, assembly