In this episode, a wealthy, influential hip-hop artist steals Mr. Burns' fortune, so he and Homer plot revenge on him.
Former basketball player Charles Barkley and hip hop artists Common, RZA, and Snoop Dogg appeared as themselves.
He then meets the host of the party, an elite hip hop artist named Jay G (Kevin Michael Richardson).
The following day, Homer's family explores Middle Hampton, and while visiting an ice cream shop, a rich boy named Blake Black cuts in front of them.
Later, Lisa is once again put off by Blake when he commits unethical methods to enhance their whale watching experience and rejects him.
It turns out that Jay G had designed the card to con Mr. Burns out of his entire fortune, and he joins Alicia Keys and his company mascot, Goosius, in laughing at his misfortune via a viral video.
Remorseful, Homer goes to Springfield Cemetery to vomit in an open grave and finds Mr. Burns commiserating at his family mausoleum.
The group visits Jazzy, who explains that he wrote all the material for Jay G's first album, but could not make any money off it due to being forced to sign over all the rights.
Meanwhile, during a break from recording sessions for the revenge rap, Mr. Burns and the group meet Jay G's ex-wife Praline (Taraji P. Henson) who beats Homer savagely with a catering tray but also helps them by bringing in Common, RZA, and Snoop Dogg to form a group called Hate Squad, featuring the Rhyme Crime All-Stars.
As Jay G laments the loss of his mascot, it is revealed that Goosius is still alive, as Homer neglected to kill him and got a roast goose from the local gas station instead.
With death seemingly imminent, Jay G reveals the real reason he betrayed Mr. Burns is that he was following the advice book, specifically the last page — "You will never be truly ruthless until you destroy the one who made you."
As the chandelier plummets, Mr. Burns and Jay G are saved by the intervention of Smithers, who has returned from his adventure in Canada, although the lake ice he was tasked to collect had by now been reduced to slush.
In the end, the family returns home to Springfield, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie have escaped from the curse, Bart is fully pardoned for his crime, and Mr. Burns, with his wealth and empire restored, attempts to incorporate a moment of musical appreciation into the daily shift at the power plant (although he starts to reconsider the first time he enacts it).
In August 2016, co-chairman and CEO of Fox Television Group Dana Walden announced that the first one-hour episode of The Simpsons would air the following January.
[3] At the announcement in 2016, executive producer Al Jean joked that he hoped the episode would not the last one before a Donald Trump inauguration, which was the actual outcome.
Richardson has done multiple spots on the show in recent years and is such a versatile and comfortable presence on The Simpsons that he's become something of an unofficial regular.
And nobody has to sell Key at this point, as his ability to inhabit comic characters in short order is ideal for his role as the former rapper turned high-end candle salesman here.
And with a brief but juicy role for Empire's Taraji P. Henson (as Praline, Jay G's very Cookie-like ex-wife who joins Mr. Burns revenge plan in the second half), and amusing cameos from real life rap royalty RZA, Common, and Snoop Dogg, there's enough legitimate blackness to make the whole 'Simpsons do a rap episode' thing less cringe-inducing than perhaps the initial description made it sound.
[10] "The Great Phatsby" scored a 2.8 rating with an 8 share and was watched by 6.90 million people, making "The Simpsons" Fox's highest-rated show of the night.