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LOS ANGELES, March 9 (UPI) —<\/span> When Vanilla Ice was cast in 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze,<\/i> returning to theaters March 13 – 19 via Fathom Entertainment, it was because of his hit song “Ice Ice Baby.”<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Vanilla Ice, real name Rob Van Winkle, 58, said “Ninja Rap” outlasted “Ice Ice Baby.”<\/p>\n “They’re like, ‘Well, I started off with the Ninja Turtles and then I heard he did other songs,'” he said.<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n “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.'”<\/p>\n Making ‘The Secret of the Ooze’<\/b><\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n In a mild spoiler alert for the 1991 movie, the Turtles win their fight. Then they dance with Vanilla Ice.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n In the 1990 and 1991 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/i> movies, performers wore Turtle costumes with animatronic heads designed by the Henson’s Creature Shop.<\/p>\n Van Winkle filmed Ooze<\/i> 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.\n<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n A lifelong Ninja Turtles collector, Van Winkle showed off collector’s items in his house, including a surfboard. He has never used it.<\/p>\n “Never would I ever scratch the bottom of that,” he said. “It’s just art all day long.”<\/p>\n In another room, Van Winkle said, he still has his set chair from The Secret of the Ooze<\/i>, 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n The ’90s were the best decade, Vanilla Ice says so<\/b><\/p>\n