You hear the words “fake emcee” in rap battles constantly. It’s quite the belittling name to call someone who wants to be one of the best. To call 50 Cent a fake emcee is asking for a death threat. One step below the category of the real emcee is one we all know as the real fake emcees. The aged and very old king of the category is “Weird Al” Yankovic, and he is surpassed by the new album, Incredibad, produced by the SNL group The Lonely Island. This category does not have many people at all, and any new groups jumping in are welcomed with open arms. Incredibad has all of the songs from Saturday Night Live skits we’ve grown quite fond of. The group is composed of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. The ability of this group to capture fantastic beats that match music to date with hilarious lyrics that surpass the ability of “real” emcees like iSouljaboy.
The beginning of the album starts with the track “Who Said We're Wack?” giving a great parody of how most current hip-hop and rap artists talk about how no one is ever allowed to mock them. They talk about how a friend of a friend called them “wack” and talk about how they can’t understand how someone can even go to the extent of using such a vulgar word. I found this to be quite amusing if you listen to the album and how much they use swear words throughout the rest of the album.
When you hear track three you see the skit before the song even gets to the lyrics. The beats of these tracks are so amazing that you have the feeling that if a club had the audacity to actually play the song, no one would actually skip a beat, and dance straight through it. On top of that, the crowd would be singing along to “Jizz in My Pants” and moving to the beat. The Lonely Island does a fantastic job tearing apart the house music scene with this track.
“I'm On a Boat (ft. T-Pain)” following track three captures all the T-Pain backup singing tracks that have been drowning us on the radio. The lyrics are the only way to decipher that this is a track that wants to be in the fake emcee category. Actually having T-Pain join in and sing the same way he would on any other track produced by a legitimate rap artist like Akon. The limiting of repetition of the chorus and yelling like normal rap artists raises this group to the top of the fake emcee world.
The first interlude is the “Normal Guy (Interlude)” and I have no idea what is going on for this. If you’re listening to the album straight through, rather than finding what you’re looking for, they definitely surprise you. They’re nothing like the jokes that we remember from the original fake emcee albums that were put out by Adam Sandler. I think I’ve listened to this track at least seven times, and I still don’t get the ending to it. You’ll have to hear it for yourself and let me know what’s going on.
The “Boombox” track is a track of the album I am quite sure was never an SNL Skit. The lyrics are amazing and talk about the power of a great boombox in all the wrong places. From an old folk’s country club to a board room, they sing about how the power of the boombox changes how people act. They get quite descriptive in the lyrics. It’s albums and tracks like this that makes commuting to work less angry when you’re trapped on the freeway stuck in traffic.
If you’re new to the fake emcee world, this is great album to start out with. The individuals that have put out fake emcee music in the past usually go extremely over the top and really just cover old songs with their own lyrics. The Lonely Island does a fantastic job of coming up with their own music and producing tracks that people can seriously enjoy on a weekend mix with other legitimate tracks that you would normally play. Don’t forget to wear your nautical-themed pashmina afgan while listening to the album.
Artist:
www.incredibad.com
