Vanilla Ice’s $30m ‘for doing nothing’

One-hit wonder Vanilla Ice turned his initial success into a $30m business empire — all thanks to wise investments.

The one and only Vanilla Ice. Picture: Getty

He shot to fame in the 90s with his chart topping song Ice Ice Baby before his music career faded away.

But Vanilla Ice has proven he’s no one-hit wonder after raking in a whopping $US20 million ($A30 million) by “doing nothing”, the New York Post reports.

The rapper, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, revealed how he turned his initial success into a multimillion-dollar business empire — all thanks to wise investments in the real estate market.

“I did Ice Ice Baby when I was 16 and then it blew up really big and we were selling a million records a day easy. Way beyond any of my expectations, he told comedian Steve-O on his podcast, “Wild Ride! with Steve-O”.

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Ahh … the ‘90s.

During the height of his success, Van Winkle snapped up homes “around the country” - but didn’t use any of them for three years while he was touring.

“OK while I was young and dumb, I thought I had blew all that money,” he said.

“I bought a house next to Michael J Fox [actor] literally right across the street, he would go out to his mailbox in his robe and I would see him there.

“I had homes all over the country right because you’re young, I just bought a bunch.

This Florida home was once part of Ice's real estate portfolio. Picture: Realtor

When you're super rich, a pool is mandatory. Picture: Realtor

Money never sleeps. Picture: Getty

It's all about the Louis. Picture: Realtor

“I never used them, I thought I would use them while I was there because I don’t want to stay in hotels, it gets crazy.

“So I bought all these homes and thought s**t in three years I’ve never seen them, I thought I’d lost money on them, and I go ‘f**k I just blew a lot of money.’

As his rap career took a nosedive, Van Winkle’s financial savviness took flight.

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Vanilla Ice in The Vanilla Ice Project.

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After one of his properties was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the singer renovated the home and sold it for a huge amount. The venture soon led to him amassing a real estate empire.

“And I go ‘let’s just sell them’ and I sold them all, they go real quick, and I made millions for doing nothing!

“I didn’t even change the carpet or anything. And I go ‘Holy s**t let’s buy a bunch more of them’ and I was buying homes all over the place, and still am.

“I have a process now on how I buy the homes that takes 30 years to understand how it works.”

By 2018, Van Winkle was raking in $US800,000 annually, according to divorce court documents obtained by The Post.

He also hosted his reality TV show, “The Vanilla Ice Project.” Spanning across nine seasons, the show took audiences along with him as he refurbished various homes.

Parts of this story first appeared in the New York Post and were republished with permission.

Originally published as Vanilla Ice’s $30m ‘for doing nothing’