Word to your mother! As one would expect, Vanilla Ice got right to it and threw back to his biggest hit during the season 23 premiere of Dancing With the Stars on Monday, September 12. The rapper let loose to his 1991 song “Ice Ice Baby” with his pro partner, Witney Carson, moments before fellow competitors Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke were ambushed by two men on stage over the Olympian’s Rio robbery scandal.
The duo pulled out all the stops for the nostalgia-filled cha-cha routine. During the high-energy performance, Vanilla Ice (real name: Robert Matthew Van Winkle), 48, emerged from a top-down convertible before breaking out his hip-hop moves with Carson, 22.
The early-’90s icon rocked an eye-catching patriotic-theme jacket on the show, which he described as an “OG throwback.” Carlson also enlisted some backup dancers and brightened up the set with Vanilla Ice’s name projected on the dance floor. Their debut earned them a 25 out of 40 score, landing them in the middle of the pack.
#GoodTimes #DWTS @DancingABC pic.twitter.com/foalCoJQ8v
— Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) September 13, 2016
“Hey, respect man. I loved watching that dance because it’s terrific. [But] there wasn’t enough cha-cha,” judge Len Goodman said during the ABC broadcast.
Fellow judge Julianne Hough agreed. “That made me so happy, I cannot even tell you. You’re an awesome dancer,” she said. “I just want to see some more content.”
The upcoming season will be a busy one for Vanilla Ice. He revealed on Monday that he will be touring across the country for concerts in between rehearsals with Carson.
“I almost wore the cool outfit from the show out the studio and to the airport. Lol,” he tweeted after the show, presumably off to his next gig. “Had such a blast I didn’t want it to end.”
Watch Vanilla Ice bust a move on DWTS in the video above!
