Freaknik: The Musical

Freaknik: The Musical is not a movie, TV show, or a special. It has nothing that belongs in the category of special. It runs in the category of an annoying, atrociously bad film, combined with low grade animation, and even worse, bad lyrics that are hardly understandable because of the terrible syncing process and the chaos usually corresponding the song. It can't be to complicated for a special, which it isn't. Its just a loud show that has an excuse to say "the n word".

T-Pain is a decent rapper, sometimes his songs are a little graphic, but for the most part he is tolerable, but his musical talents are wasted in this mess. He plays "The Ghost of Freaknik Past" in which he brings life to a dead party that took place in Atlanta a number of years ago. To me the celebration should have stayed dead, even in a cartoon, the show is still abysmal.

In the mean time, four amateur rappers try to make their way across the state to get to the rap battle being held at Freaknik. Cee-Lo, Rick Ro$$, DJ Pooh, and Young Money get into the usual mishaps while on the road. They find a wild house party, they try to avoid a group that is ironically trying to whipe Freaknik out (too being ironic Al Sharptoin, Oprah, and Bill Cosby resemble the people against Freaknik), and they need to win the Rap Battle so they get some money to pay their rent and finally get the respect they "seemingly" deserve from their family, friends, and the culture around them.

The show is cheesy and poorly animated to a new degree of awful. The colors are putrid and only black, brown, puke green, and gray hit the screen. It's as miserable as a foggy day. The unkempt society of this show is motley and unappealing to the eye. Aside from the number of problems this show has, the music is what counts. The song by the "Sweet Tea Mafia" is tolerable and doesn't cause harm to the ears, but other songs like T-Pain's "Freaknik's Back" and "Save You" are rushed and failed experiences clearly identifying that this show was a procrastinated mess that doesn't deserve recognition.

I've always admired Adult Swim for their clever lineup of shows, humorous bumps, and cool advertisements among the network. Though for every bump Adult Swim put up for this garbage made me just die a little inside. To quote Ally Sheedy's line in The Breakfast Club and as well seen in The 82nd Academy Awards "When you get older your heart dies." To add mine to the cult classics of movie quotations, "Whenever I see an ad for Freaknik my heart dies." Starring: T-Pain, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Rick Ro$$, Lil Wayne, Young Cash, Sophia Fresh, Snoop Dogg, DJ Pooh, Kelis, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Cee-Lo, Lil Jon, Big Boi, Kel Mitchell, Affion Crockett, Charlie Murphy, DJ Drama, Mack Maine, Mike Jones, and Carl Jones. Directed by: Chris Prynoski and Jacob Escobedo.

Best thing to happen to and come from hip hop in many years. Freaknic, The Musical has a star studded cast (of hip hop artists) that brings the excellently written script to life, as well as gives depth and realism. "Freaknic ain't real, its a urban legend, like Candyman (the character from the movie)," became, for me, one of the more memorable lines from the musical. Great one-liners and 90's references as the previously mentioned before are pleasantly placed throughout the musical, maintaining a quick pace of comedy. Freaknic, The Musical, as a work of hip hop music brings a fresh critique of the genre as a popular art form and as an urban form. Freaknic, The Musical also offers an intellectual component, similar to Adult Swim's The Boondocks, as it makes fun of conservative black thought for more liberal and modern culture. Once again, Adult Swim has delivered thoughtful programing for its targeted audience.

Freaknik is the Adult Swim 1 hour program that stars rapper T-pain, the rapper notoriously known for his use of Auto Tune throughout his albums.

I can't say I'm a follower in the legion of T-pain fans (I'm classic rock, I have to say) but I do watch a lot of Adult Swim, and unlike most of the shows, I couldn't get myself to miss this.

The story starts when the major character, Freaknik, an Atlanta rapper who was at the top of his game, was arrested and eventually killed (A obvious reference to many famous rappers, who die so mysteriously) but a cool little summoning brings back the spirit of Freaknik, and thus, the voice that is the Auto-Tune sound of T-Pain arises.

The story kind of moves into a rag to riches story that plays by the numbers. It may be an entire hour, but to be honest, it is not the story I was watching it for, because I have seen better; it's the actors, the music and the character, Freaknik.

Again, I am not a rap music enthusiast; In fact, if I had to advocate any rap music, it was everything in the 90s and that was the end of it, and I do not enjoy T-Pain's music, and yet, I was intrigued by it all. T-Pain sounds like a character when he "Raps", so in said case, the Auto Tune voice makes the character seem a little bit more lively.

The actors in the movie are probably the reason I wanted to see this for the most part: You have Snoop Dog, Andy Samberg and Bill Hader, Charlie Murphy, many great celebrity personalities to hear, but most are so underused in this project, Samberg and Hader used for about 3 minutes, Charlie Murphy for about a few seconds, and Snoop Dog for about a minute, all to bring us back to a few characters whose are dull as dishwater, actually.

So, all that leaves to judge is Freaknik, the character, who was actually the best part. The character, a spirit, is actually real lively in speech, and The songs Freaknik does range from the over-excesses of Women, Drinks and Money, to helping strippers getting out of their awful jobs and getting them into college.

This is where the movie excels, and unfortunately, that's as good as it gets. You get a handful of songs and a few chuckles here and there but that's it. It is a picture of little redeemable value.

I think the problem was so much of the ideas were based on T-Pain that everything was given a backseat, so in order to make the movie watchable, it was just up to hiring a few well known rappers to give most a movie part in something.

But, if this were a full length motion picture, I'm sure the story would be better than it is, and honestly, I'd like to see that. Freaknik is interesting character, perhaps in another longer project, just recreate the entire story to make characters who are interesting, not cardboard cutout ghetto characters with no passion or drive, you lose interest too quickly and it shows when the writers really create nothing more than an an overly long party sequence and a troupe of Flying Malcolm X's to wrap up the movie.

So in conclusion, If the character comes back, make it more interesting, let T-Pain do what he does best, and come back with more interesting characters.

A disappointing but brutal 4 out of 10.

I watched this movie and just fell in love. The rapping is solid and sounds great. The acting was humorous and well done. The story line was not made to be serious. I know a lot of people dog on T-Pain for "over using auto-tune", which does at times make people sound a lot better. But I think what people miss is that it brings a style to singing. Maybe T-Pain sucks at singing with out the help of the program, but with it he brings a different style of music. Which can also work in his favor, such as it may work for his voice but for another person could make it sound horrible. It may not be talent but it sounds really good, so why dog it. It works really good with the musical. The art of the musical is all done in I guess you would say a graffiti style which is perfect for the movie it is.

In a nut shell: Its a rap musical, featuring several top rap artist, with T-Pain as Freaknik turning Spring Break into the party it should be, and three young men trying to rising to fame.

Can not wait for the soundtrack ^_^

I'm writing this in absolute disbelief how the main review that showed up on this page is absolutely asinine. I honestly thought for a moment that Al Sharpton himself decided that being a robot trying to destroy a festival wasn't satisfying enough to his ever-shrinking heart. But seriously, the reviewer gave it a 1-star, and went on to talk about how it was down right offensive and about nothing other than money, hoes, and weed.

This is the kind of thing that makes me upset, they had a multitude of rap and hip hop icons working neck and neck with the animators and the writing team. This entire show was supposed to be a tribute to an insane event that happened once a year. Not to be taken seriously by anybody, and to say the only intelligent female throughout, who is based off Oprah, that's just ridiculous. But then again I can tell you the reviewer who caused me to write this also was an extra in the movie itself. At one point Big Uzi is diving into a sea of gyrating asses. This was Jamais Jochim's acting debut in all it's gyrating glory.

This country we live in is a complete culture pit, and I think only when we strip off our pride and really destroy ourselves for comedic benefit is when progress from hundred year old grudges might actually happen.

But then again, titties, money, hoes.

Word out.