REVIEW: THE CLEVELAND SHOW “Menace II Secret Society”
Cleveland has it out with superstar rapper Kenny West (guest voice Kanye West) over him hogging the credit for the megahit “Be-Cleve in Yourself,” which they cowrote. Later, Cleveland discovers Kenny is involved in a secret hip-hop society with will.i.am, ?uestLove, Bruno Mars and Nicki Minaj (also providing their own voices). Meanwhile, Cleveland Jr. is rejected by his school’s marching band, so he forms a polka ensemble.
Spoilers Below
Cleveland helped Kanye score on a super hit song and he feels he didn’t get a lot of credit if any. When trying to break into Kenny’s house to reclaim what is rightfully his, he discovers a secret underground society that knocks him out cold! He wakes up naked and not raped at his home, but his wife and kids aren’t buying into what he say the night before. According to Federline, Cleveland has stumbled onto a hip hop Illuminati but its believed only to be that of a legend where a bunch of the world’s biggest hip hop stars congregate. When Cleveland confronts Kenny about the club, but he denies it completely and gets thrown out.
Yea, the Illuminati is real and it includes Kanye West, will.i.am, ?uestLove, Bruno Mars and Nicki Minaj wearing hoods and drinking out of goblets of whatever. Cleveland sneaks in as an ostrich and meets the rest of the gang complete with a ridiculous montage with the whole crew featured. Afterwards, Kenny denies Cleveland’s request to join the club but later he actually talks with the rest of the group of whom convinces Cleveland to enlist Junior’s terrible polka band to try and ruin some songs for Mr. West thereby discrediting him as a group member.
Later, Kenny shows up to a big show with the rest of the secret society watching and waiting for the disaster, but not before Cleveland gets a Grammy from him for the hit song. This causes Cleveland to almost come clean but Kenny gets taken up on stage and DESTROYS the show causing all sorts of fan acclaim. The rest of the Illuminati find out and boy are they pissed but Kenny quits and the group disbands.
Who would have friggin thought that this clusterfuck of a guest star roster would actually work so well?? Not me! Granted, no one really blew me away with their voice over either singing or talking but they read their lines and did a decent job of delivery. For the most part a lot of the songs seemed somewhat under produced for a group of singers known mostly for their vocoder abilities which I thought was strange, but the polka song in the end was funny as hell. Also, Rallo in the recording booth was great and I definitely wish we saw more of that but overall a solid effort for the Stoolbend crew.
Do we know if Hulu will be the only entity to have the dub, or if it will be on other platforms, too? The show in general is definitely going to be on multiple platforms.