Incredibad [PA]

Performer: The Lonely Island
Artist: E-40; T-Pain; Jack Black; Chris Parnell; Julian Casablancas; Norah Jones; Justin Timberlake; Natalie Portman
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: The Lonely Island: Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone. While the accompanying DVD is the ideal way to experience the Lonely Island's (aka Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer) lauded digital short sketches, their satirical rap-and-R&B jams hold up surprisingly well without visual accompaniment. And it doesn't hurt that old classics like "Lazy Sunday" have been revamped with guest vocalists like Jack Black, Julian Casablancas, and E-40. Their contributions are a testament to the trio's knack for selecting worthy cultural trends for skewering, and the wit and creative energy behind their cut-ups. "I'm On A Boat" (featuring T-Pain) is a perfect example--boiling down typical hip-hop gloating to its implicit essence, without sounding out of touch or condescending. For a double-disc, audio/video comedy collection, there are shockingly few moments without laughter. For a comedy group that was born and raised in visual mediums -- web videos and the Saturday Night Live television show -- the Lonely Island are still way ahead of the curve when it comes to the comedy album format. Of course, music was at least half the reason links to their series of SNL Digital Shorts would dominate in-boxes every following Monday. The smart mimicry of teen pop ("Dick in a Box"), Euro-disco ("Jizz in My Pants"), or old-school rap ("Lazy Sunday") is half the attraction, and when you add the "aw shucks" look of on-camera Islander Andy Samberg, you can get away with a lot of shocking material. So many mentions of naughty bits would be tedious if Samberg and SNL writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone didn't have the brains to pull it off, and dealing with the differences between races seems much less dangerous when the trio show they're well-versed in the works of their hip-hop guests, E-40 and T-Pain. Their hiring of eccentric underground rap producer J-Zone shows their in tune with what's next and when white rasta wannabe "Ras Trent" complains of his "bomboclat parents" and declares he can make a chalice out of a Sprite can, the snarky commentary is made all the sweeter by a lyric that drops two deep reggae references: "Me night nurse never want to plant de corn." The track has also been updated so that a visual joke from the original SNL version is removed, and with all the interludes and new material, plus fake alternative album covers throughout the booklet, this isn't an afterthought but a fully committed comedy album. On top of that, it's a hilarious comedy album that's just as hip, inventive, and inappropriate as their digital shorts. ~ David Jeffries

Rolling Stone (p.66) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Spoofing R&B and club hits, the trio's debut CD-DVD features hits like 'Lazy Sunday'....'Like a Boss' is a Dirty South anthem that's absurd enough for Lil Wayne." Billboard (p.37) - "The genius of the songs is in pairing in-your-face lyrical humor with a faithful musical tribute."

Formed around the nexus of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone in 2001, Lonely Island began filming sketch-comedy shorts and pitching their material around for a potential TV pilot. While none of their shows were successfully aired, YouTube musical-comedy hits like "Lazy Sunday" caught the attention of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE creator Lorne Michaels, who cast Samberg and hired Schaffer and Taccone as writers. A series of viral-style hip-hop/R&B parodies (most famously, "D**k In A Box," featuring Justin Timberlake) were some of SNL's most popular skits in 2007 and 2008, leading to a formal record deal for Lonely Island's debut album, INCREDIBAD, which featured their original satirical compositions, SNL videos, and contributions from luminaries such as Timberlake and T-Pain.

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