The Lonely Island - Incredibad Review

Posted by Tom Santoro on 02.16.2009

SNL’s Andy Samberg and crew become the greatest fake m.c.'s on Earth on their new comedy album.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Who Said Were Wack?
2. Santana DVX
3. Jizz in My Pants
4. I’m on a Boat (Feat. T-Pain)
5. Sax Man (Feat. Jack Black)
6. Lazy Sunday (Feat. Chris Parnell)
7. Normal Guy (Interlude)
8. Boombox (Feat. Julian Casablancas)
9. Shrooms (Interlude)
10. Like a Boss
11. We Like Sportz
12. Dreamgirl (Feat. Norah Jones)
13. Ras Trent
14. Dick in a Box (Feat. Justin Timberlake)
15. The Old Saloon
16. Punch You in Your Jeans
17. Space Olympics
18. Natalie’s Rap (Feat. Natalie Portman & Chris Parnell)
19. Incredibad



Over the past few years, Hip Hop has developed into a parody of itself. So it was only a matter of time that these clichés would be exposed by a comedian. Usually that person would be Weird Al Yankovic, but this go around The Lonely Island beat him to the punch.

I know Weird Al did some hip-hop parodies, but as you are well aware, he mostly makes fun of the original subject matter of the song and makes a G-rated version of it. He gave us such titles as “Amish Paradise” and “All About the Pentiums,” funny songs if you are 12 and under. Where Weird Al talent is just changing words over the same music, he fails is making fun of a genre’s clichés. That is where Andy Samburg and The Lonely Island come in.

Most of you will recognize these songs from Saturday Night Live’s Digital Shorts features. The team behind these digital shorts is The Lonely Island, a comedy troupe started in the early part of the decade. The troupe features SNL’s Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer (director of Hot Rod) and Jorme Toccone (Rod’s stepbrother in Hot Rod).

Incredibad is the official name of the troupe’s fake hip-hop group as dubbed in the song “Incredibad.” The song tells the tale in 80s B-boy style of how they lost their virginity to an alien all together when they were 13. After completing the act, the alien grants them a wish and of course, they wish to be “the greatest fake m.c.’s on earth. The Lonely Island (or Incredibad) has succeeded.

On Incredibad, they lampoon every style of hip-hop to comedic perfection. They nerd up the bravado and overconfidence found in most hip-hop lyrics in songs like “Lazy Sunday”, “Punch You in Your Jeans” and “Who Said Were Wack?” They also take on styles like crunk (“I’m on a Boat”), reggae/dance hall (“Ras Trent”), gangsta rap (“The Old Saloon”, “Punch You in Your Jeans”, “Lazy Sunday” and “Natalie’s Rap”) and oversexed R&B love songs (“Dreamgirl”, “Dick in a Box”). Also unsafe from their satire is the use of Autotune (“I’m on a Boat”), stupid skits (“Normal Guy”), Timbaland style beats (“Jizz in my Pants”) and the love of champagne (“Santana DVX”).

No hip-hop record would be complete without featured A-list guests and Incredibad is no different. Guest appearances include Justin Timberlake, Jack Black, T-Pain, Norah Jones and The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas. It also features actress, Natalie Portman rapping an entire song gangsta style.

Here is a look at some of the highlights:

“Who Said We’re Wack?” is full of nerdy bravado. First off they use the term “wack” which I think went out in the days of Kid n’ Play. It follows the typical nature of most rap albums by attacking haters on the first track like 50 Cent’s “What Up Gangsta?” on Get Rich or Die Trying.

“Santana Dvx” is funny for two reasons; the first is making fun of rappers who glorify the status symbol of drinking the expensive champagne’s like Dom Perignon and Cristal. The second reason is it uses Santana DVX Champagne to glorify. For those of you who do not know Carlos Santana has made champagne. It is quite tasty.

“Jizz in My Pants” is a parody of Nelly Furtado and Timbaland’s “Promiscuous Girl”. It is probably the most well known of all the digital shorts and probably the funniest.

“I’m On a Boat” features T-Pain doing his autotuner thing in a crunk song. I love the fact that they expose that crunk artists just need to chant an innocuous phrase to make a hit. This song is one of the best on the album.

“Sax Man” features Jack Black. It is a funk rock song where Black sings about how awesome the Sax man is. When he tries to get “sax man” to do a solo, he clearly cannot play.

“Lazy Sunday” is simply the best song on the album. Chris Parnell is an awesome M.C. It is awesome because they glorify nerdy things like “The Chronic-what, The Chronicles of Narnia.”

“Boombox” is not one of my favorites. It features The Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas. It is about using a boombox to get old people to dance.

“Like a Boss” is one of my favorites because it is a parody of Slim Thug’s “Like a Boss”. Because I work in a dysfunctional place, “Like a Boss” is personally funny to me as Samburg goes down a list of normal work things in a performance review while he says “like a boss” repeatedly.

“Ras Trent” is a reggae dance hall parody where Samburg does his best to sound off key as he goes through common phrases used in reggae music.

“Dick in a Box” features Justin Timberlake and is a Color Me Badd parody. It is one of SNL’s most popular Digital Shorts. It gives you all the steps on how to give your special lady your junk for any special occasion.

“The Old Saloon” is a parody of old West coast gangsta raps like Warren G.’s “Regulate”. Instead of Compton, CA, it is set in the real Wild Wild West.

“Natalie’s Rap” features actress Natalie Portman rapping about how she really is. She curses through the song the same way Eazy E or Ice Cube did back in the N.W.A. days.

“Incredibad” as I already said is a B-Boy style rap about screwing an alien. I think that is all I need to repeat.

The songs that are not mentioned like “We Like Sportz”, “Space Olympics” and “Dreamgirl” are not as funny as the ones highlighted. Another disappointment is the “Iran So Far” was omitted from the record. That is one of my favorite digital shorts.

Anyways as comedy and parody albums go Incredibad is going to make some rappers squirm as they listen. The beats provided by Asa Tocconne are all-original and could easily be mistaken as legit hip-hop beats. It is the high production quality that makes this a more on par with comedy rock acts like Spinal Tap, Tenacious D and Flight of The Conchords. It is about time hip-hop got served!

The 411: On The Lonely Island's debut comedy album Incredibad they follow in the footsteps of Spinal Tap and Tenacious D as they lampoon various hip-hop styles to great effect. If you are a fan of hip-hop and have a sense of humor this is the album for you.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]