"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane is clearly a huge music fan. Last year, he built an entire episode of "American Dad" around My Morning Jacket (and lead character Stan Smith's sudden obsession with them), and on May 2, "The Cleveland Show" will welcome a very special musical guest of its own. Kanye West will show up on that episode, and though his participation was announced a while ago, Entertainment Weekly has unveiled the first image of West's appearance on the show.
According to EW, the West will play a local rapper named Kenny West who gets into a rhyme battle with Cleveland Brown, Jr. (son of the show's titular main character) over a woman they both like. (In another big guest star spot, the girl will be voiced by Taraji P. Henson.)
"We knew that Kanye was a 'Family Guy' fan," co-creator Rich Appel told EW. "In the writers’ room, we just thought it would be great to have him as a character on the town. So we came up with the story. He really liked it and said, 'Sure!'" Apparently, West relished the experience: Appel told EW that not only did West show up early to the table read of the episode, but he also already booked an appearance on the show next season.
The appearance on "The Cleveland Show" won't be the first time West has shown up on television in animated form — though it will be the first time he's on by choice. In 2009, Comedy Central aired an episode of "South Park" called "Fishsticks" that featured a Kanye West character that was clearly not sanctioned by West himself (though to his credit, he took the ribbing in stride).
Will you watch "The Cleveland Show" when Kanye West is on? What other rappers would you like to see in an animated setting? Leave us your thoughts in the comments!