Posted by A scene from the 2023 movie on Apple TV+ has shaken everyone: The Family Plan shows Mark Wahlberg rapping Ice Ice Baby, the famous song by Vanilla Ice, and his skills have a history.
The Family Plan has been one of the most pleasant new releases on Apple TV+ at the end of 2023. It is a peculiar comedy filled with action, secret services, and plot twists. Mark Wahlberg is the protagonist: a father and husband who leads his family through predictable routines, although he hides a past as… an assassin funded by the government. This contrast leads to many surprises and a happy ending where all the bad guys are defeated, thanks to Wahlberg’s incredible fighting skills and the unexpected help from his family.
However, fighting isn’t the only talent Mark Wahlberg shows in the family plan. You’ll discover something new about Kyusho Jitsu, a unique martial art that focuses on attacking the pressure points in the opponent’s body (it’s a real thing, you can find out more about it here). You’ll also see Mark Wahlberg speaking German and French fluently (we knew about his rough German from a past interview, whereas it seems his French was developed on purpose for this movie).
Among all these things, though, what really surprised everyone was his rap talent. There is a particular scene in the movie when he starts his “spontaneous” trip with the whole family (it’s everything but spontaneous; he’s trying to run away from the people who want to kill him). While they are all in the car, Mark Wahlberg starts rapping Ice Ice Baby, the famous song by Vanilla Ice, in an iconic scene that became one of the highlights in The Family Plan. Watch it below, from Apple TV+’s YouTube channel.
Ice Ice Baby is the song that made Vanilla Ice famous. He released it in 1990, although he wrote the song years before, when he was 16. The song features a recognizable sample from Queen & David Bowie’s Under Pressure and became the first hip-hop song ever to reach no. 1 on the Billboard Hot Chart. If you are nostalgic about ’90s hip hop and how those years marked the history of music, you can listen to the song in full streaming here.
What not everybody knows is the reason why Mark Wahlberg is so good at rapping. He actually started his career as the frontman of a hip-hop band. His stage name was Marky Mark, the band was Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and their first single even topped the American music chart: Good Vibrations, released in 1991, featuring a sample from Loleatta Holloway’s Love Sensation. Watch the official video below, a shot of Mark Wahlberg’s peak in his hip hop career.
Mark Wahlberg is a skilled rapper, and that scene in The Family Plan represents a well-deserved homage to a part of his life that didn’t have the chance to last enough.
His interpretation of Ice Ice Baby shines while he sings the song’s first verse, which is entirely focused on introducing Vanilla Ice as a new emerging artist. The track was the way Vanilla Ice presented his rap to the world, and Mark Wahlberg perfectly matched his energy. Below, you can find the lyrics you heard in the movie.
Collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
“Will it ever stop?” Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights, and I’ll glow
To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance, go rush the speaker that booms
I’m killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it, you better gangway
You better hit bullseye, the kid don’t play
If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it
So we have a Hollywood actor who had a short phase as a famous rapper, in a phase that not many people remember today. The Family Plan of Apple TV+ managed to give Mark Wahlberg a new chance to show his rap skills, and the song chosen for this occasion is the 90s hit we all recall as a beautiful memory of those years, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. It’s one of those things that can turn a scene (or an entire movie) into something we will not forget.
