NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
In the current day when Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is ruling the world, there exists a huge appetite for acts that dominated the charts when Gen X was growing up. “Nostalgia” tours have typically been dominated by 80s bands but the 90s are now raising their hands and saying “hold up!”. The I Love the 90s Tour, which includes some of the most popular hip hop acts from the 90s, has been running for nine years!! On Saturday August 10th, the tour stopped at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY with a lineup of Vanilla Ice, Rob Base, and Young MC. It was bound to be a raucous night!
The first performer of the evening was Young MC (aka Marvin Young) from Scottsdale, by way of London, NYC (shout out to Hunter College High School!), and LA. His hit “Bust a Move” can still be heard just about everywhere you go and he has also co-written some of fellow I Love the 90s artist Tone Loc’s biggest hits! But Young MC hasn’t been sitting on his laurels and has been continuing to work on new music. In fact, he released a new single “Loose” back in June and we were lucky enough to hear it on Saturday along with his iconic 1989 hit. The man has still got the rhymes!!
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Next up was Rob Base (aka Robert Ginyard) whose platinum single “It Takes Two” was a Top 40 hit back in 1988. Although his partner DJ E-Z Rock (aka Rodney Bryce passed away in 2014, Rob Base has continued to perform and has been a staple on the I Love the 90s Tour since its inception. Performing a combination of his music and covers as the sun began the set, he encouraged all the fans, even the ones in the back sections, to come as close to the stage as possible to get ready for the final performer of the night.
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Vanilla Ice (aka Robert Matthew Van Winkle) has been in and out of the music spotlight, mostly in. He has also been a feature artist on the I Love the 90s Tour since the beginning and remains a huge draw. We finally got to see the stage setup and lighting as it should be, the spotlights on the main attraction. Vanilla Ice’s stage crew included DJ Dirty Chopstix, drummer Trent Laugerman, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (remember he was in the second TMNT movie), and someone who seemed to continuously spray water all over him and into the crowd! About halfway through his set, Vanilla Ice invited pretty much whoever wanted to come onstage to join him, which they did! Somehow this also included Angela Deem (from 90 Day Fiancé). His engagement with the crowd was spot on, taking selfies and even coming down to the barricade to high five and take more pictures. The fair crowd loved this 90s icon! If this night was any indication, 90s acts should be touring more as their fans from that decade are looking back fondly to younger days. I understand there a freestyle tour that I may need to check out.
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