Andy Samberg Reflects on Lonely Island’s 2010 Rap Grammy Nod: It Was ‘Because We’re White!’

Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer know that the Lonely Island‘s rap Grammy nod for “I’m on a Boat” with T-Pain might have been a fluke.

On Monday, the trio reflected on their nomination during an episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, sharing that they apologized to T-Pain for not connecting after the song’s nomination, and admitted that the nod may have happened because they’re white boys.

“I don’t know if anyone’s ever gone to the Grammys hoping to lose more,” Schaffer said. “We were like, ‘If we win, we can’t get on stage.’ We were only confident enough to go because we were that sure that we were going to lose.”

Samberg shared that they bumped into T-Pain at the awards show but that they hadn’t seen each other since they got nominated. The trio had debuted the song on Saturday Night Live with T-Pain a year prior, on Feb. 7, 2009.

“He was like, ‘You know how many fucking songs I did this year? This is the one that got nominated?’” Samberg said T-Pain asked them. “We were like, ‘We know, we’re sorry. It’s because we’re white!’ ”

“We never, for a second, thought we’d win, which was, again, a relief,” Schaffer added. That year, the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration went to Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Rihanna’s “Run This Town.” Along with “I’m on a Boat,” Lonely Island and T-Pain’s song was nominated against Beyoncé and Kanye West’s “Ego,” West, Keri Hilson, and Ne-Yo’s “Knock You Down,” and T.I. and Justin Timberlake’s “Dead and Gone.”

T-Pain won his second Grammy for “Blame It” with Jamie Foxx that night in the Best R&B Performance category. He also performed the song with Doug E. Fresh, Slash, and Foxx at the awards show that night.

The trio of comedians recently performed the song — which made it to the Billboard Hot 100 after it was released — during the SNL 50 concert back in February. The song was originally featured on their album Incredibad, which dropped in February 2009.

From Rolling Stone US.