‘The Simpsons’ Will Do a Hip-Hop Tribute to ‘The Great Gatsby’ in First Hour-Long Episode
The Simpsons has covered a lot of ground in its 27 seasons, but two things the show has yet to do is an official hip-hop tribute and an hour-long episode. That's changing however with an announcement today that the legendary animated show will be doing a Great Gatsby-themed episode titled “The Great Phatsby” which will air in January.
Empire's Taraji P. Henson and Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele will lend their voices to the episode, which will focus on ruthless tycoon Mr. Burns and the deterioration of his friendship with a hip-hop mogul named Jay G, a play on Jay Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's titular character from his 1925 novel. Worth noting, the first song on the soundtrack to The Great Gatsby remake in 2013 is "100$ Bill" by Jay Z, who executive produced the album.
“This 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,” Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman told Entertainment Weekly. “And we haven’t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip-hop and rap culture, so we just went for it.”
The episode will feature original hip-hop songs and will be, as Selman says, "like a two-part rap album.” The show has featured hip-hop before, most recently in February when Drake's "Started From the Bottom" was used for a scene and in a 2005 episode titled "Pranksta Rap" that stars 50 Cent as himself.
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