Nationwide — Many people are reacting negatively to BET’s recent announcement that rapper Vanilla Ice, who is white, will perform at the upcoming Selma Anniversary concert.BET’s three-hour concert, will be one of many events held in Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march on Selma and Bloody Sunday. Celebrities to appear will include Bill Withers, Cicely Tyson and Harry Belafonte as well as Hip-Hop acts such as Flava Flav, Rick Ross, Doug E. Fresh, and Vanilla Ice.
“Vanilla Ice was in the Soul Train Awards two years ago and he’s a really cool person. When we call him for things he likes working with us and we like working with him,” said Paxton Baker, president of BET Event Productions. “He’s one of the people we call to participate in things with us, and if he can do it he absolutely will. I sent him a text and within two minutes his response was two words: ‘I’m in.'”
During the concert, Vanilla Ice will perform one of his own songs, likely his hit song “Ice, Ice Baby”, and will also participate in the “Self Destruction” performance along with acts like Bell Biv DeVoe, Flava Flav, Doug E. Fresh, MC Lyte, D-Nice and others.
The controversy with Vanilla Ice seems to be a recent concern among many Black Hip-Hop fans that white rappers are supposedly “white washing” hip-hop.
Vanilla Ice, however, is a hip-hop legend who was a huge international star in the early 1990’s. He sod more than 160 million records.
More recently, in mid-2013, he went on tour with the New Kids on the Block tour alongside Boyz II Men.