There are pop stars (Katy Perry, for the introspective "Wide Awake" from her documentary about herself), arena rock stars (Bon Jovi, also a Golden Globe nominee, for "Not Running Anymore," featured in "The Stand-Up Guys"), rap stars (Rick Ross for "100 Black Coffins," produced by Jamie Foxx for "Django Unchained") and indie favorites (Florence and the Machine, Fiona Apple, Arcade Fire).
We were just two guys rapping to two girls and not getting anywhere.
"They thought we were two black guys rapping," says Blank, still bemused, "not music from the cheese-and-chocolate land".
The songs clearly hold a strong appeal for the singers they satirise, as proven by their enthusiasm to appear on the albums, and it is this fondness that prevents them being just a 21st-century Weird Al Yankovich ("We always said that if the only joke is that we're white guys rapping, we're sunk").
"It was a combination of testosterone, super-duper 'guy' rock, and white guys rapping that commanded the airwaves".
All this role reversal is funny, of course, in the same way that nerdy white guys rapping is funny.
"When I was in high school, me and a couple of guys rapped together and we were really into kung fu flicks," Phipps said.
"These guys rapping now most of whom are aligned with Assad, or rebel groups like the Free Syrian Army or al-Nusra grew up listening to me".
These guys rapping now most of whom are aligned with Assad, or rebel groups like the Free Syrian Army or al-Nusra grew up listening to me".—al-Nusra grewMasri.
Seven years on: The Lonely Island have become a force to reckon with, collaborating with some of the best in the business and perhaps institutionalising the consecrated genre of white guys rapping about random stuff.
The joke isn't particularly clever or original, and the two men, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, exhibit no ambition to transcend the simple, ancient gag of nerdy white guys rapping: "Yes, sometimes my lyrics are sexist / But you lovely bitches and hos should know I'm trying to correct this".
