Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone’s Hiphop Comedy Tour at the York Event Theatre (101 Eglinton East), tonight (Thursday, August 11), 8 pm. $20 advance. www.jamiekennedyworld.com. Also at Yuk Yuk’s Downtown (224 Richmond West), Friday (August 12), 7:30 and 10:30 pm. $17 show only. 416-967-6425. Rating: NNNNN
Jamie Kennedy’s recording a rap album? Huh? Could it be some kind of comedy-world payback for the horrible Freddy Got Fingered by former Organized Rhyme frontman Tom Green and Ice Cube’s Are We There Yet?
It sounded suspicously like I was being X’ed when Toronto MC D-Sisive told me he was ghostwriting some rhymes for a hiphop project the prankster host of Jamie Kennedy Experiment is currently recording with Canuck songwriter/producer Stu Stone. But evidently it’s on. And there’s more, a lot more.
“I thought it was a gag, too,” says D-Sisive at a Danforth restaurant. “When Stu called me up saying he needed some beats for a Jamie Kennedy hiphop album he was working on, I was like, ‘Yeah, right, whatever.’
“But then I got a call from Jamie saying he wanted me to write some rhymes for this hardcore-type thing he was doing with Bob Saget. So I threw something together and sent it off to Stu thinking that would be the end of it. When I got back from doing some UK shows with DJ Format, Rollin’ With Saget was all over the Internet, very much like I wrote it.”
Listening to that nutty novelty single Rollin’ With Saget (“the illest muthafucka in a cardigan sweater”) – which features the straitlaced stand-up Bob Saget hilariously swigging champagne, pissing in bushes and firing shots at 50 Cent and DMX in a club – it seems like Kennedy just may be able to parlay his Brad “B-Rad” Gluckman character from Malibu’s Most Wanted into a whole new career.
“What Tenacious D is to rock, that’s what we’re going to be to hiphop,” explains Kennedy over the phone from Los Angeles. “The music’s funny, irreverent, you know, just having some laughs. We’re calling it crankster rap – 100 per cent hiphop comedy.
“I grew up listening to what’s now considered old-school hiphop, like Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys and 3rd Bass, too. Most of the artists from that era had a sense of humour, but things have changed. Of course, Eminem and Ludacris can be funny, but there’s not much fun in hiphop any more. I thought it was time to bring some of that back.”
The Hiphop Comedy Tour, which rolls into the York Event Theatre tonight (Thursday, August 11), gives Kennedy a chance to see how his songs about gun violence and his secret love for Mindy Cohn fly in front of a live audience.
Kennedy’s album is still a work-in-progress, but since the Rollin’ With Saget single, things are coming together fast and furious. DJ Lethal is producing tracks, and Kennedy is suddenly finding it much easier to secure guest artists for cameos. There’s also a pilot for an MTV series in the works.
“Actually, the whole Rollin’ With Saget thing happened because we couldn’t get anyone else. First I tried calling Ludacris, but I couldn’t even get through to his secretary. Then I wrote a letter to Jay-Z, but he didn’t reply, and Fat Joe didn’t answer the e-mail I sent him.
“Then I was thinking, the only other dude I know is Bob Saget. So Stu said, ‘Let’s try Bob.’ So I asked him and Bob said, ‘Yeah, sure!’ He came over and just nailed it.
“Now we’ve got NSync’s JC Chasez, the members of Cypress Hill, and I’m still trying for Chuck D and maybe Jeff Goldblum, too. I’ve got a sequel in mind for our Saget tune called Rollin’ With Goldblum. He’s doing some kinda off-Broadway thing in New York right now, but we can get his parts done real quick. I know Jeff’s always down for whatever.”
