LOS ANGELES, March 9 (UPI) — When Vanilla Ice was cast in 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, returning to theaters March 13 – 19 via Fathom Entertainment, it was because of his hit song “Ice Ice Baby.”
In 2026, he says young fans still discover his 1990 hit because they saw him in the Ninja Turtles film. When the Turtles fight other monsters in a dance club, Vanilla Ice freestyles “Ninja Rap” on the stage.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Vanilla Ice, real name Rob Van Winkle, 58, said “Ninja Rap” outlasted “Ice Ice Baby.”
“They’re like, ‘Well, I started off with the Ninja Turtles and then I heard he did other songs,'” he said.
He did indeed do other songs and released six albums including one live concert recording. Now, Van Winkle discovers YouTube videos of young fans listening to his 1990 hit.
“They do these reaction videos where they’re listening to it for the first time on YouTube,” he said. “They’re already in their 30s and never heard ‘Ice Ice Baby.'”
Making ‘The Secret of the Ooze’
The film posits that Vanilla Ice can make up a rap about human-sized, fighting turtles on the spot. In real life, Van Winkle did not need much more time to write “Ninja Rap.”
“I did it in one night, actually the night before that in my hotel room,” he said. “I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep.”
In a mild spoiler alert for the 1991 movie, the Turtles win their fight. Then they dance with Vanilla Ice.
“I came up with all those dance routines,” he said. “I had to teach them how to do it and then the challenge was to teach them how to do it with the suits on.”
In the 1990 and 1991 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, performers wore Turtle costumes with animatronic heads designed by the Henson’s Creature Shop.
Van Winkle filmed Ooze during a break from his 1990 tour. During production, EMI Records CEO Charles Koppelman had bikini-clad models present him with his gold, platinum, double and triple platinum album plaques.
“They go, ‘Actually, today you sold another 3 million. We just do”t have the plaque printed up,'” he said. “It’s at 675 million worldwide now. At that time, I didn’t know I’d sold ten records.”
A lifelong Ninja Turtles collector, Van Winkle showed off collector’s items in his house, including a surfboard. He has never used it.
“Never would I ever scratch the bottom of that,” he said. “It’s just art all day long.”
In another room, Van Winkle said, he still has his set chair from The Secret of the Ooze, but is afraid to let anyone sit in it lest it collapse. He has passed his Turtle love onto his four daughters, the youngest of whom is 7.
“We walk by any sewer hole where the cap is in the street, we automatically stop and say what’s up to the turtles down there,” he said. “I missed one. My 7-year-old goes, ‘You missed it. The Turtles.’ I had to go back and say what’s up to ’em.”
The ’90s were the best decade, Vanilla Ice says so
1991 was the heyday of Vanilla Ice and he looks back fondly at the entire decade. He has persevered, appearing in Adam Sandler movies and hosting his own construction series, The Vanilla Ice Project.
Van Winkle said he has only realized in retrospect how good he, and society, had it in the ’90s.
“There’s no suit and tie person that says, ‘Hey, this generation’s going to stop on this day and there’s going to be a new one on this day,'” he said. “There’s no committee. It does it on its own.”
Van Winkle lamented generations of kids who stay inside playing Fortnite now. He cited VHS, cassette decks, Blockbuster Video and even Beavis and Butt-Head, who mocked his videos, as treasures of the ’90s.
“It was the last of the great decades ever,” he declared.
When he’s not building houses or raising his daughters, Van Winkle gets to relive the ’90s in the I Love the ’90s: The Party Continues tour, extended from his initial eight-month booking in 2017.
Van Winkle brings out a costumed turtle when he performs “Ninja Rap” and marvels at “big old bearded guys” chanting and dancing along.
“We get the soccer moms that come in,” he said. “People come out dressed like Ninja Turtles.”
Bringing ’90s joy back to fans of all ages is what Vanilla Ice is all about.
“Smiles are contagious,” he said. “That’s how I wake up every day, man. My purpose, my meaning, my drive, my ambition is everything about happiness.”
The Vanilla Ice biopic and new album
Vanilla Ice’s movie career continued in 1991 with Cool as Ice, also celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026. In this vehicle, Vanilla Ice rapped, danced, got the girl and saved her family, who was in witness protection, from corrupt cops.
“It felt like an Elvis movie and I’m a huge Elvis fan,” he said. “He did 31 movies, he gets the girl at the end and he maybe gets in a fight along the way to get her. Then he ends up dancing on the beach with guitars and a fire and bikinis.”
The film remains a time capsule of Van Winkle’s favorite decade.
“All the fashion, the editing, the colors, the way the music hit is so representative of the ’90s,” he said. “You want to feel what the ’90s were, you watch Cool as Ice.”
Van Winkle will reunite with Sandler in Grown Ups 3, he said. A Vanilla Ice biopic named after his first album, To the Extreme, is also in development with Dave Franco attached to play him.
Franco has been waking Van Winkle up with late-night calls, but he is happy to tell stories.
“He’ll be calling me at 10:30 at night,” he said. “He’ll be like, ‘I gotta know what happened here and what happened there and what happened here.'”
After 21 years, Van Winkle is planning to release another Vanilla Ice album this year. Now & Forever is named after a track from his 1994 album.
The new album includes digitally remastered versions of “Now & Forever” and some other vintage songs restored from original 2″ tape reels.
“That’s my first single,” he said. “That’s the name of the album: Vanilla Ice Now and Forever.”
The album includes some new songs as well as a third version of “Ninja Rap.” He recorded “Ninja Rap 2” in 2005.
It also includes more recent singles, like 2019’s “Ride The Horse” which he recorded with Forgiato Blow and Cowboy Troy. The song was streamed millions of times, countering the “one hit wonder” stereotype.
“I’ve got funky music that went to number 6, top 10,” he said. “I’ve got all kinds of songs all over the place but everybody, they only remember two songs, ‘Ninja Rap’ and ‘Ice Ice Baby.’ It’s awesome, man. These new songs for this new generation, they love it.”
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