Although quite popular over two decades ago, notably known for tearing up the MTV set of the reality show The Surreal Life:
…but best known [and actually well-received] for his hit Ice-Ice Baby:
…former rapper turned HGTV home remodeling expert Robert Van Winkle [a.k.a “Vanilla Ice”] has a rather lukewarm response to “Shell Shocked”-a song on the newly released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze soundtrack-featuring Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J, and Ty Dolla $ign rapping on it.
Having endured and been teased about his rap past (via many a quips and jokes referring to him as a “ninja” himself, a time or two); the former rapper told GQ magazine: “With respect to all of the artists, the song doesn’t really do it for me. It feels a little artificial. What I mean by that is that it sounds like a bunch of executives in the corporate world put it together. It really does not fit the theme of the Ninja Turtles’ legend. I think you have to understand, and be a true Ninja, to possess the Magic to really pull off the secret sound.”
When the song first came out, Wiz Khalifa claimed to have a deeper connection to the Ninja Turtles than his rap fans would have ever assumed: “I actually have Donatello tattooed on my leg, so when they asked me to do it, just being a fan and being a musician, it made sense. In my generation, I think everyone who listens to me loves the Turtles as much as I do,” he’s on record for having said.
Still, Van Winkle (the original Ninja/ninja): 
…is not buying it.
He did however, have moms all around the world buying Kraft Macaroni and Cheese when he-himself-shot a commercial earlier this year reviving “Ninja Rap” for the food maker, where he danced with a mom in a supermarket aisle as her son looked on. And as Vanilla Ice says at the end of his Ice Ice Baby hit: “Word your mother,” he resuscitates the same line and the end of commercial—the true Ninja (or ninja)-“possessing the magic and pulling off the ‘secret sound’”
All jokes aside, laugh if we want to.
But every step and move Vanilla Ice has made onward and upward has been in perfect line and formation with his brand–and off of all but 1-2 songs……..one to two songs…. (even to having gracefully bowed out the rap game and still somehow spun it into something new that he’s good at…and using that as a kind of spin-off/take off from the old—but using it as the theme and premise for the new).
Amazing.
His moves, then and now, are incredible.
Teenage Mutant Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze was just released yesterday in theaters everywhere.
Spitfire .
Media Maestro .
Writing Rhinoceros .
