Vanilla Ice Has Some Thoughts on the New 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle' Rap

[Transcendence]

A little over two decades since Vanilla Ice rapped "Go, ninja, go!" as a nightclub performer in 1991's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, the "Ninja Rap" trailblazer has offered up his thoughts on "Shell Shocked," Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J and Ty Dolla $ign's rap for this year's reboot of the franchise.

 

"With respect to all of the artists, the song doesn't really do it for me," he told GQ. "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." (The capitalization is apparently his.)

Khalifa may beg to differ. When the song came out, he claimed to have a closer connection to the Turtles than one might assume. "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," he said in a statement. "In my generation, I think everyone who listens to me loves the Turtles as much as I do."

Earlier this year, Ice asserted his stake in the turtle rap genre when he revived "Ninja Rap" for a mac & cheese commercial, in which he danced with a mom in a supermarket aisle as her son looked on. "Word to your mother," he said.