There is a problem, and yo, he’s solvin’ it.
Rob Van Winkle, better known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, grabbed headlines Thursday night after The Huffington Post Canada posted a story claiming the former rapper predicted Justin Bieber’s fame would soon come to an end.
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However, Van Winkle says the quotes are false.
“This is not a true quote, it’s a flat out lie,” Van Winkle told Access Hollywood in a statement on Friday. “I am friends with Justin Bieber and his family, I think he is talented and will be around for a long time.”
The site claimed Van Winkle compared Bieber’s young fame to his own rapid rise to stardom and predicted the teen titan’s empire would soon crumble.
“I mean, I did ‘Ice Ice Baby’ when I was 16. So I can kind of relate a bit,” the one-hit wonder reportedly told Huffington Post Canada, referencing his famous 1990 rap. “Sold over a hundred million records. And I had a weekend that lasted about three years, and I didn’t know who I was, what’s my purpose in life.”
Though Bieber, 17, boasts multiple hit songs and albums, a blockbuster movie, and now, a perfume for women, the site claimed Van Winkle predicted that the young Canadian heartthrob will quickly fall on hard times.
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“My prediction about Bieber is that he’s going to go through one of those weekends that lasts a few years because he’s had such success as a child act,” he reportedly told the site. “Then something else new will come along and he’ll be forgotten and he can try to put all the pieces back together, so it’s going to be entertaining to watch.”
On Friday afternoon, The Huffington Post Canada posted an update sticking by their story.
“Vanilla Ice has taken to Twitter to deny making remarks about Bieber, but we have the audio,” the update stated. “Maybe the rapper simply forgot what he said. The interview was conducted June 1 and embargoed because his show does not start until August.”