Music
The Simpsons are doing an hour-long hip-hop episode
by Jeremy Mersereau
January 3, 2017
The hour long episode stars RZA, Common, and Snoop Dogg and is called The Great Phatsby.
Most TV shows, even hyper-popular cultural touchstones, don’t run for 28 seasons and none can boast as many classic moments, characters, and celebrity appearances as The Simpsons. Of course, as the show itself commented on in the 8th season episode “The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show,” it’s impossible to maintain a high level of consistent quality when you’re dealing with that long of a timeframe, but damn if Fox and the showrunners aren’t committed to trying. Case in point: this month will see an hour-long hip-hop & Great Gatsby themed episode featuring appearances from RZA, Common, and Snoop Dogg.
The episode will air on January 15th, and will also feature voice work from actors Michael Key (from Key and Peele) and Taraji P. Henderson (from Empire), and will mark the very first continuously-aired two-parter in the show’s history. Simpsons exec producer Matt Selman told NME that the show “was just going to be a regular episode, but the table read went so well, in a fit of passion and excitement and ambition and excess, we decided to supersize it…we haven’t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip-hop and rap culture, so we just went for it.”
In a featurette about the episode, Key says he’s playing a former rap star who’s fallen on hard times, and will also feature a plot-line about Mr. Burns being taken in by a sinister rap mogul. Oh, and the whole thing is based on The Great Gatsby and is called “The Great Phatsby.” Well, it ought to be better than the Itchy & Scratchy Poochie episode, anyway.
[H/T Entertainment Weekly]