There's at least one person who doesn't like the song "Shell Shocked" from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and his opinion may be more important than anyone's: Vanilla Ice, the performer who delivered the track "Ninja Rap," which appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of The Ooze and has become the unofficial theme song for the film series in the minds of a generation.
"With respect to all of the artists, the song doesn't really do it for me," Ice said. "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."
We couldn't agree more. Although Ice's appearance in the second film feels fairly tacked-on, it's nothing compared to the track released by Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J and Ty Dolla $ign for Michael Bay's new film. We have no doubt that Khalifa was totally sincere in his efforts—being a ninja turtle was probably his second best career option after rapper—it's just tough to replace something like "Ninja Rap," which has been ingrained into Ninja Turtle culture for 23 years.
"I think you have to understand, and be a true Ninja, to possess the Magic to really pull off the secret sound," Vanilla Ice continued.
Uh, he lost us there. Seems to be bringing together the popular hip-hop themes of ninjas and the Illuminati into one big theme. Until the RZA confirms the latter part of the statement, we're just sticking with the theory that it's tough to replace classics.
Compare and contrast:
