If you catch Vanilla Ice, born Robert Matthew Van Winkle, at home in Florida on a sunny afternoon, don’t be surprised if he’s “just sitting out here by the pool, marinating,” blasting K-pop at full volume because his youngest daughter, Priscilla, is calling the shots with their speaker system.

“She controls the dial and everything. So when I’m in the car, I have to turn everything way up, louder than I even want to listen to it,” he laughs. “And I’m from the ’90s."

It’s a funny admission from the rapper who soundtracked a generation with songs like “Ice Ice Baby” and "Ninja Rap." These days, Van Winkle is both reliving his own musical glory days and jumping headfirst into a new genre, thanks to his new gig as a mentor on the nostalgia-filled reality competition show KPopped, out now on Apple TV+.

The show is all about East meets West, mashing up iconic hits with high-voltage choreography and big personalities. Van Winkle says he's struck by just how much the K-pop scene reminds him of his MTV-era heyday.

“This is gonna be the most entertaining thing on TV, not just for your 6-year-old and my 7-year-old, but for [adults] too. Because we can remember all the greatness of life before computers ruined the world, you know? And the kids are gonna sit there and enjoy it with us. We're gonna go, 'I remember that.' And they're gonna go, 'Well, I love this.”

It’s a full circle moment for the ’90s hitmaker, who’s all in on K-pop’s mission to spread “more culture to the world.” But moving the needle forward means borrowing a little magic from the past, and that’s where the real power of nostalgia comes in.

“It’s kind of been lost for a while — so let’s bring it back with the ’90s,” he says.

KPopped may be about marrying the old with the new, but for Van Winkle, the genre is a throwback to what he calls “the last of the great decades.” As the self-described “oldest teenager in town,” he still hasn’t let some of the era’s beloved fads go. So much so, in fact, Yahoo Lists asks him what he wishes he could revive from that time in his life, when he had his ragtop down so his hair could blow.

Z. Cavaricci pants

Z. Cavariccis need to come back. I can't find a pair in my size anymore, and I'd buy them all day.

The fashion

I miss all those zigzag hairdos. Well, it's kind of coming back! A lot of stuff is coming back. All the lines I used to put in my hair. Do you remember that? I shaved my eyebrows. There were so many crazy things.

The fanny pack is back, and the '90s are in full effect. It's all gonna come back, and I love it.

5.0 Mustang

I want the ragtop down so my hair can blow. That car is the most epic there is.

Blockbuster

Oh my God, I'd go back to Blockbuster. It was so much more than going there and just getting a movie. It was about getting out of the house. Studying the back of the [movie] cover just to see if it was a good one. A bag of popcorn. It was about just getting up and out of the house, to come back with something and really sit down and watch it.

Cassettes

The cassette deck is still the coolest. I lived during that generation, and I'm honored to be there for that. The patience it takes to rewind and find that one song — it creates patience. These kids today, I don't think they could handle the cassette.

I found my old collection [of cassette tapes] in a box of construction equipment. I found everything. Nothing is as valuable as those tapes. When I popped [the box] open, it was like the holy grail. I don’t care if I had the Hope Diamond in there, it would never be as valuable as those tapes! I had [my] studio sessions, all kinds of stuff. I have cassettes and a cassette player. A collection of old jam boxes, actually.

I can always gravitate to the old-school [songs] because it just puts me back in that time. You know, Bruno Mars is great. I love him. But, hey, [artists today] all are trying to make it sound like it did back in the analog days, you know? I think AI is gonna even make it worse. I love that old vintage analog sound and just memories of high school.