It’s hard not to laugh at the Lonely Island. For most artists, that would be a great insult, but for this band, it’s a compliment.
Aside from the Beastie Boys, three white guys rapping together for any reason can be downright disturbing.
Acutely aware of this fact, the Lonely Island has taken no time on its latest album, “Turtleneck and Chain,” to be serious. The band does quite the opposite, in fact. @@http://www.billboard.com/features/the-lonely-island-turtleneck-and-chain-track-1005176782.story#/features/the-lonely-island-turtleneck-and-chain-track-1005176782.story@@
Instead, the comedy group, which gained its fame through lead singer Andy Samberg’s role on Saturday Night Live, has mastered the art of music parodies. @@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1676221/@@
The band’s music doesn’t just make a dumb joke out of popular music, but instead it uses parodies to make clever observations about issues in modern life like sex, pop culture and dating.
The newest album does it again, churning out what’s sure to be a chart-topping piece of pop culture gold.
It’s hard to really criticize a group that sets itself up to be ridiculed.
But one thing that should be said is that even though the members of the Lonely Island are clever and deftly aware of the laughable topics in life, they don’t really sing about anything that matters.
Through crass lyrics and mainstream hip-hop beats, the group takes a jab at modern hip-hop, culture, sex and other similar topics, and it’s funny, especially since it’s three white guys in turtlenecks and gold chains doing the rapping. In terms of what they sing about and how they go about executing it, they’re brilliant. But in terms of singing about topics of actual substance, there’s nothing there.
But this is what the group is best at. They probably wouldn’t be as funny or as commercially successful if they were singing about politics or war. They do play the race card a bit with their appearance and jabs at hip-hop music. Maybe there is some subtext of seriousness underneath their songs, but most likely not.
Songs to check out on the album for the biggest laughs are probably the hit “I Just Had Sex” featuring Akon, “Motherlover” featuring Justin Timberlake, “Attracted To Us” featuring Beck and, probably one of the most epic Lonely Island songs ever, “Jack Sparrow” featuring Michael Bolton. @@”I Just Had Sex” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o@@ @@www.thelonelyisland.com/track/Motherlover@@ @@www.prefixmag.com/media/the-lonely–island/attracted-to-us…/52003/@@ @@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6CfKcMhjY@@
Even without the music video, bringing Michael Bolton into the mix was probably the best thing the Lonely Island could ever do for themselves. Not since “Office Space” has Bolton ever been so popular.
Maybe one day we will be able to take a group of three white guys rapping seriously, but for now, the Lonely Island will remain seriously the funniest group of fake rappers around.