The Lonely Island, the comedic, hip-hop-inspired trio, consisting of Saturday Night Live talents Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, will be releasing their sophomore album, Turtleneck and Chain, this Tuesday, May 10.

Featuring songs with rap favorites such as Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, Akon and Rihanna, the disc finds the group doing what they do best: making fun songs in which they spoof pop culture through rhyme.

XXLMag.com recently had the opportunity to chop it up with Samberg and Schaffer about working with E-40, wanting to collaborate with Cam’ron and their controversial Grammy nomination. Cue the laugh track. – Jesse Gissen

XXLMag.com: You guys are big hip-hop heads. Talk about some of the music that inspired you all to start penning your own rhymes.

Akiva Schaffer: First off, I’d never say we pen our own rhymes. [Laughs] We do write words. We make jokes in the form of rhymes… sometimes. All this started in high school, Andy? What do you think? In the beginning of high school?

Andy Samberg: As far back as like Run-D.M.C., Too $hort, N.W.A.  Everybody that was on “Self-Destruction” and “We’re All In the Same Gang.” My older sisters listened to a lot of “Roxanne Roxanne,” too.

Schaffer: We were in high school around the era when... for the East Coast it was like Nas’s first album and [Wu-Tang Clan's]36 Chambers. And then, Black Moon and a lot of Tribe.

Samberg: Yeah, Black Moon and Showbiz and AG. And that Black Sheep record was huge.

Schaffer: And because we were West Coast guys, The Pharcyde was huge for us and Hieroglyphics and Souls of Mischief and Del and all them. E-40 and Too $hort out the Bay were huge for us, too. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard our first record, we actually got E-40 on a song.

XXL: Yes, yes. What was it like working with the Ambassador of the Bay?

Samberg: 40 water? With 40 water himself? It was the shit. [Laughs] I would describe him as a gentleman.

XXL: So he didn’t bring any groupies in the studio with him?

Schaffer: No because the week we recorded it we were in New York and he was in the Bay. He heard the song and we talked to him a bunch of times. And then he went in and we gave him a list of possible subjects because it was very clear to us that he had to come from the perspective of Carlos Santana— it was very specific. We gave him a bunch of bullet points like, "Here are things Carlos Santana did. He’s from the '70s. He has long hair. He wore a bandana. He fucked all the '70s girls." And then he wrote his rhymes, which were obviously awesome. Getting it back was like opening a present. Like, "What did he do?!" [laughs]

Samberg: And turned out he blessed us with a classic.

XXL: Which other folks did you work with in the studio?

Schaffer: Nicki Minaj.

Samberg: Akon. Santigold.

XXL: What was it like working with Nicki? I’m sure that was an experience in itself.

Samberg: She’s fresh, man. She beasted the booth, without a doubt. [laughs]

Schaffer: That’s the kind of way we talk. We say things like, "She beasted the booth."

Samberg: I’m constantly saying that. [laughs]

Schaffer: We probably invented that. I’m sure somebody else would argue. [Laughs]

XXL: I’ve never heard that term before.

Samberg: Yo, somebody says that. "I’m an animal. I beast the booth." I feel like it’s on Ghostface’s record but it’s not him. It might be like Masta Killa or some shit.

XXL: Speaking of Ghost, which Wu-Tang member would you most like to work with?

Samberg: Probably Ghost, but we like them all.

Schaffer: I’m a Raekwon guy.

Samberg: I’m a Raekwon head. We love RZA. We love Meth. If you meant like if I had a time machine, probably ODB.

XXL: So ODB’s the number one?

Samberg: I think so—well I don’t know, though. Their darts are all pretty sharp.

Schaffer: We like working with people that are a little like… I don’t want to say crazy, but like a little out there and ODB was definitely the most out there member.

FOR MORE OF THE LONELY ISLAND, GO TO PAGE 2

XXL: So what about Lil B? He’s from the Bay. He’s a pretty strange character. You guys know about Lil B?

Samberg: Yeah, I mean we loved the “Vans” song when that one came out.

Schaffer: Our friend Drew Campbell – he makes beats in the Bay Area – he was the one that made the beat for E-40 with us. He’s the one that made the beat for “Mother Lover” and he made the beat for “Throw It On The Ground,” which is also on the new record. He made a couple on the old record too. He recorded “Vans” for B so we were like, "Hey should we get on with The Pack? What’s up with The Pack?" So hopefully we will get to meet him at some point.

XXL: I would love to give you Lil B’s phone number and get that started because it would make perfect sense for you guys to do something.

Samberg: I’m sure Lil B with his album I’m Gay will probably like our song “No Homo.”

XXL: Oh, you did a song called “No Homo?” That’s great. I got to hear that. We were just talking about that in the office, wondering why a rapper hasn't come out with a song titled “No Homo” yet.

Samberg: Oh, yeah. And we have an official plan to create a big poshy remix where we get real MCs to jump on it, like how everybody got on “Black and Yellow.”

XXL: That would be great.

Schaffer: When the album drops and everyone hears “No Homo,” we’re gonna see which rappers have the guts…[laughs]

XXL: You got to get Cam’ron – he's the originator.

Schaffer: Yeah, he’s the king of it.

Samberg: Cam’ron may come through the studio to kill us. No, Let’s be specific about Cam’ron. Cam’ron would be our golden goose to have on the remix.

Schaffer: Those guys tear it up for real. He’d probably want to hear our version of “No Homo” before he makes any commitments. [laughs]

XXL: Give us a sample lyric so we know.

Schaffer: I’ll give you a hint. It gets slightly homo.

XXL: Although "No Homo" is a surprising track to have, I bet nothing's been more shocking than the Grammy nomination, right?

Samberg: Yeah, that was hilarious. [Laughs]

XXL: I know a lot of serious critics really took offense to you guys even getting nominated. What were your thoughts on that?

Samberg: We would be right in the same category as them. We didn’t take offense, we were flattered. But, it was kind of funny to us because we expected if we were going to get nominated it would be for comedy album.

Schaffer: We were not nominated for Best Comedy Album, and to me, that was offensive because we had the best-selling comedy album of the year by far. But at the same time, it was awesome to be nominated so we were still like, "Alright!" There was that really good song with Wale and Lady Gaga that would’ve been in the category—

XXL: “Chillin” right, right.

Samberg: Oh my God. That song is the shit.

Schaffer: Yeah, that’s a rap R&B duo collaboration or whatever. That was the category.

Samberg: Even T- Pain, when we saw him at the end of the show, he was like, "Man, I did a lot of songs this year." [Laughs]

Schaffer: He did. He was like, ‘This is a joke.’ But it was also hilarious to be in a category with “Run This Town.” We knew we weren’t going to win. [Laughs] We had a lot of fun at the Grammys because we were never nervous about winning. We were like, "Well, we’re up against 'Run This Town.' That’s hilarious."

XXL: Did any rappers treat you funny because of the fact that you were in that category? Or was it all love?

Schaffer: We were actually thrilled at how nice everybody was. It’s not our fault that the Grammys are crazy. [laughs]

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