A Poster and Behind the scenes for the upcoming 1 hour special episode of season 28, split in two parts, titled “The Great Phatsby: Part One” and “The Great Phatsby: Part Two“, has been released. The episodes airs on January 15, 2017.
Here's your first look at @TherealTaraji @SnoopDogg and more on the 1-hour episode of @TheSimpsons https://t.co/1vlYUNgK7M pic.twitter.com/kujjEgLcUB
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) January 11, 2017
Matt Selman, one of the writers of the episode, in an interview with IndieWire said: “We had never done a hip-hop episode to this degree. It’s embracing the spirit of excess so commonly found in hip-hop lyrics. It’s a Mr. Burns episode. He learns the joy of living large and flashing the cash like a rap mogul.”
Speaking of Taraji P. Henson, Selman said, “She was super fearless and funny about making fun of Cookie. She gave us a Cookie-r version of Cookie. Her character bursts in like a fireball of chaos and mixes everything up. She was so fun and had tons of ad-libs. We’re putting in everything we could that she was saying.”
Talking about the other special guests, Snoop Dogg, RZA and Common, Selman said: “We knew we had a little extra time in the show, and we thought, who are the iconic figures that could be the Mount Rushmore of rap? Their parts aren’t huge but they’re along for the ride and they all lead up to the ultimate revenge rap.”
For the music, produced by Jim Beanz, music producer for “Empire,” several original rap songs were produced by him and Selman said: “He helped give the whole episode a more layered score than usual. It’s playful with singers and beats. If you’re doing an hour, you have to keep viewers’ energy up, and music is a great way to do that. He’s been sleeping in his studio to put together the sounds for this show. It’s really cool to watch.”
Stay tuned for more