The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island, the Grammy nominated rap trio comprised of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, will release the highly anticipated ‘The Wack Album’ on June 10th.
The group’s third studio effort will include new songs featuring Pharrell Williams, T-Pain, Billie Joe Armstrong, Solange, and other special guests to be revealed. These artists join previously announced collaborators Adam Levine, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, and Lady Gaga.
Today the group kicked off ‘Wack Wednesdays’ on their YouTube Channel. Every Wednesday leading up to the release of ‘The Wack Album’, they will debut new content including music videos, exclusive announcements, and world premieres of tracks.
These videos will also be distributed on twitter via @thelonelyisland with #wackwednesdays. The first video was released today, for the group’s new track ‘Spring Break Anthem’, and stars James Franco, Zach Galifanakis & Edward Norton.
The Lonely Island recently released the album’s lead single, ‘YOLO’ (feat. Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar), which has garnered over 40 million views on YouTube in only three months. The trio also boasts a staggering 1.2 billion overall views on their YouTube Channel.
Their 2011 album ‘Turtleneck & Chain’, has been recognised as a commercial success, debuting at #3 in the Billboard chart, and #26 in the UK album chart. The album was also nominated at the prestigious Grammy Awards in the ‘Best Comedy Album’ category, and featured talents such as Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Santigold, and Beck.
The album’s first smash single ‘I Just Had Sex’ (feat. Akon) was certified platinum in the US. The second single, ‘The Creep’ (feat. Nicki Minaj and John Waters) has over 74 million YouTube views. Additional singles, ‘Jack Sparrow’ (feat. Michael Bolton) has 105 million views and ‘Threw It on the Ground’ has 52 million views on YouTube.
Their 2009 debut album, ‘Incredibad’, included Emmy® winning sensation ‘D*** In a Box’, featuring superstar Justin Timberlake. The album also featured the follow-up gold records ‘J**z In My Pants’ and ‘Like a Boss’ which have over 234 million views combined on YouTube.
The Grammy® nominated third single ‘I’m On A Boat’ (feat. T-Pain) went platinum and catapulted the album into over 430,000 copies sold making it the #1 selling comedy album in 2009 and 2010 in the US.
The trio established themselves with the enormously popular series of corresponding Digital Shorts for their singles, which were frequently featured on Saturday Night Live beginning with the debut of the pop culture sensation ‘Lazy Sunday’ in 2005.