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Our favourite yellow fam are taking their 28th season to the next level with reports that an upcoming episode will not only be the show’s first hour-long episode, but will also be entirely hip-hop themed.

According to a synopsis released by Fox, the episode, titled “The Great Phatsby”, will centre on Mr Burns being duped by a hip-hop mogul by the name of (no joke) ‘Jay G’. Apparently this warrants a helping hand from Homer, Bart, a rapper by the name of ‘Jazzy James’ who supposedly has an old score to settle with the mogul, and Jay G’s ex-wife ‘Praline’.

The kicker here is that the character of Praline will be voiced by Taraji P. Henson, who also plays a similar character in Cookie Lyon on the hip-hop heavy TV series, Empire.

On top of that Jim Beanz, who is the music producer for Empire, will be writing songs for the upcoming episode.

Either this is a chance for The Simpsons to add to their growing list of guest stars, or Fox’s latest brazen attempt at killing two birds with one stone via TV promotion is pretty sad.

That being said, the episode should be a hoot, especially with Keegan Michael Key of the comedy duo Key and Peele reported as providing the voice of Jazzy James.

Let’s just hope it all goes down much better than The Simpson’s unfortunate attempt at hip-hop know-how with the 2005 episode “Pranksta Rap”. Just in case you’ve forgotten, and I don’t blame you if you have, it featured a laughable Ludacris-type character by the name of ‘Alcatraz’ and 50 Cent being forced to pick up dog poop. Yikes.

‘The Great Phatsby’ is due to air sometime in January 2017.

  • Words: Vincent Dwyer

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