Vanilla Ices no idea what pal Escobar did until FBI call, there wasnt Google

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One the legends of the rap scene from the 1990s has revealed he met with Pablo Escobar on several different occasions.

Vanilla Ice became a household name in the 90s when he burst onto the scene in 1990 with his song "Ice Ice Baby". He went on have commercial success throughout the decade, with other hits including "Ninja Rap" and "Play That Funky Music".

But despite the success he enjoyed in the 1990s, Vanilla Ice – whose real name is Robert van Winkle – kept a rather eclectic group of friends. One of these close partners was infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar.

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Speaking to VladTV in an interview, the 56-year-old hitmaker said that the pair would regularly hang out, together with Pablo's drug cartel – the Cocaine Cowboys. He added that he believed that the gang were just "businessmen" and that Pablo himself was a "great person".

In the interview, Vanilla says that he and Escobar had regularly met at his home on Star Island in Miami Beach in Florida. According to him, Vanilla was not clued up on who Pablo was or what it was that he did.

"We were all friends," he admitted. "They would land helicopters in my house constantly, on Star Island.

"Come into my house, I had food just for them in the refrigerators," Vanilla continued. "They would take me in the helicopter, we'd go to these great events and race boats and look at all the cool stuff that they were making.

Vanilla Ice added that he had never given Pablo's dodgy dealings a second thought, as he simply assumed that they were people who were there to do business.

He said: "I never questioned, we didn’t have Google. I don’t know who these people are. I thought they were businessmen. They like to race boats like I did."

Continuing on, he said that due to Pablo's extortionate money, he treated Vanilla Ice to a variety of different events. He joked: "There was always a bunch of bikinis floating around everywhere."

Speaking to TMZ later, he said that the two struck up an unlikely friendship and got on very well together. When asked on what brought the two together, Vanilla said the common denominator between the two was speedboats, which was becoming a popular commodity at the time.

Pablo and Vanilla regularly raced around in speedboats, with Vanilla adding he believed that Pablo made boat racing a mainstream event as a result of the money he had sunk into the sport. It was not until the FBI questioned Vanilla Ice on his involvement with Pablo Escobar that he realised what his actual profession was.

Pablo Escobar was one of America's most prolific drug lords, commanding a trade worth millions of dollars during the course of his life. He went on to be elected to Colombia's national parliament, but was eventually arrested as the Colombian and American authorities pushed to topple him from the drug cartel power he had.

In 1991, Pablo surrendered to authorities and was sentenced to five years in prison, but was able to escape the jail – leading to a nationwide manhunt. Due to his inability to lead, his cartel fell apart and he was eventually killed in his hometown one day after his 44th birthday.

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• money
• FBI

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