A long list of Hip Hop and R’n’B royalty have been confirmed as guest stars for the next season of Fox‘s animated series, ‘The Cleveland Show’.
Kanye West, Bruno Mars, will.i.am, ?uestlove, and Nicki Minaj will all be making a stop in Stoolbend, Virginia in an episode titled ‘Menace II Secret Society’.
The five artists will be playing themselves in the episode, and contributing original music behind the scenes, as they make up part of a secret rap “Illuminati” that Cleveland accidentally walks in on.
With the busy schedules of the artists, the episode has been in the works for almost a year. When it was first announced, Mike Henry, the voice actor for Cleveland, said: “We have an episode where Kanye and will.i.am, playing himself, and Nicki Minaj, playing herself, and Bruno Mars, playing himself, and ?uestlove—they’re all part of the rap Illuminati, the secret group that controls pop culture.”
Rich Appel, the show’s executive producer went on to explain that, “Cleveland inadvertently breaks into it and then it’s how he will either bring them down or they’ll bring him down.”
The notion of a ‘rap illuminati’ has grown in prominence over the past decade. A recent poll by hip hop magazine The Lounge found that over 50% of those asked believed in a plot to control the world through the manipulation of pop culture; with respondents speculating that both Jay-Z and West serve as members of the secret society.
Kanye West has already guest stared in the popular series several times as rapper Kenny West.
While no air date has yet been announced for the ‘Menace II Secret Society’ episode, it will be part of the show’s fourth season, which kicks off on October 7, 2012.
Watch Kanye West as ‘Kenny West’ in The Cleveland Show below:
http://youtu.be/ZpdEYQYcQrY
