Earlier this year, Fox announced its first hour-long episode of The Simpsons, centering on an Empire-riffing story about Mr. Burns plotting to recover his fortune from a conniving rap mogul, complete with an appearance from series star Taraji P. Henson as the music producer’s equally scheming wife.
Now, Entertainment Weekly reports that the show is recruiting “the Mount Rushmore of rap” to round out its musical credits, with Snoop Dogg, RZA, and Common all scheduled to appear on the double-sized episode when it airs in January. The diversity of styles on display was intentional, according to writer and producer Dan Greaney: “They represent different moods and different aspects of the history of hip-hop.” Rather than just being about rap, though, the episode will also feature a lot of original lyrics, written by Empire’s Jim Beanz. It’s not clear whether any of the guest star ringers will spit a few verses, though, or if Beanz will just pay homage to Nancy Cartwright’s past MC career by sampling “Do The Bartman,” or any of the other classics from The Simpsons Sing The Blues.
The Entertainment Weekly article also revealed some further plot details, and the fact that the entire episode—titled “The Great Phatsby”—is intended as an homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The mysterious music mogul, for instance, is named Jay G, which is actually pretty clever, as far as “rap references that are also Great Gatsby jokes” are concerned.