''W.T.F. (Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus)'', also known as ''W.T.F.'' or just ''WTF'', is the sixth (and to date, most recent) studio album by American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

Robert Van Winkle, known as Vanilla Ice. Scheduled for a 2009 release, it was officially released as a digital download on August 30, 2011, through Radium Records, executive produced by Vanilla Ice, Nick DeTomaso and Mark Mehwald. In contrast to some previous releases by Van Winkle, the album included notable active collaborators Cowboy Troy and the

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, both artists that Van Winkle has been an open fan of. It also includes songs with a variety of genre influences, ranging from straightforward

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

rap rock Rap rock is a music genre that developed from the early to mid-1980s, when hip hop DJs incorporated rock records into their routines and rappers began incorporating original and sampled rock instrumentation into hip hop music. Rap rock is co ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

and others. The album sold just 1,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Music.

History

The album was first announced on Robert Van Winkle's

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account under the title ''Yesterday Is History, Tomorrow Is A Mystery'', scheduled for an initial 2009 release on StandBy Records. The album was completed in February 2010, and it was announced that its new title would be ''WTF'', an

initialism An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps wi ...

for ''Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus''. On May 17, 2010, the album's track listing was revealed through Van Winkle's official website. The album was officially released on Radium Records as a digital download through Amazon MP3 and

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

on August 30, 2011. The album has since been released on CD by Radium Records following the success of his reality show The Vanilla Ice Project.

Music

The album touches upon diverse musical genres, including

, acoustic,

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and

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

. It features guest appearances by Violent J of

and Cowboy Troy.Twitter / Vanilla Ice: Check this out, It just recorded a song for the new record WTF with @ICP called Born On Halloween, wait till you hear it! Whoop whoop !
/ref>

Track listing

Samples

Born on Halloween *" This Is Halloween" by the cast of ''

The Nightmare Before Christmas ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (formerly known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop motion Animation, animated Gothic film, gothic musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick in his f ...

'' 5446 *" 54-46 That's My Number" by

Toots & the Maytals The Maytals, known from 1972 to 2020 as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group, one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music. ...

Oh Momma *"

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" is a country music song first recorded by Ed Bruce, written by him and his wife Patsy Bruce. His version of the song appears on his Ed Bruce (1976 album), 1976 self-titled album for United Artis ...

" by

Ed Bruce William Edwin Bruce Jr. (December 29, 1939 – January 8, 2021) was an American country music songwriter, singer, and actor. He was known for writing the 1975 song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and recording the 1982 cou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:WTF (Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus) 2011 albums Vanilla Ice albums