Like a Boss

"Like a Boss" is a song written and recorded by comedy hip hop troupe The Lonely Island for their debut studio album Incredibad. The song is a parody of the first official single from Slim Thug's first album Already Platinum, also named "Like a Boss". The song had multiple versions, including an audio-only that did not have the celebrity interviewer and a clean version that was produced in both audio and video. In 2011 it was also subject to a lawsuit from the producers of the song who claimed they never received proper compensation for their work.

Song

"Like a Boss" premiered as a Saturday Night Live Digital Short on April 4, 2009.^[1] In the song, Andy Samberg is a businessman, evidently in middle management, having a performance review. Samberg is asked to describe the things he does in an average day, and does so for the remainder of the song in his trademark aggressive style while repeating the lyric "like a boss" after every activity.

He lists activities which are fairly mundane at first, such as talking to corporate headquarters, approving memorandums, remembering birthdays, leading a workshop, and promoting synergy. However, the song takes a turn after he mentions his female subordinate Deborah, whom he repeatedly pursues, rejecting him, causing him to "swallow sadness", face a sexual harassment lawsuit and be passed up for a promotion. The ensuing depression leads to him binge drinking vodka and defecating on Deborah's desk. The activities Samberg's character describes become more and more bizarre, such as calling a sex line, "cry[ing] deeply", demanding a refund, attempting suicide with a gun only to back out in fear, vomiting on Deborah's desk, jumping out of a window, "suck[ing] a dude's dick", purchasing cocaine, crashing his car,"suck[ing] his own dick," eating chicken strips, castrating himself, blacking out in a sewer, meeting a giant fish and "fuck[ing] its brains out," turning into a jet, attacking St. Basil's Cathedral ("bomb the Russians"), crashing into the sun, and finally dying. Everything described is done "like a boss." It ends with the reviewer trying to confirm some of the more bizarre events with Samberg, who confirms that he does daily chop off his testicles and die, but denies ever having said he fellates himself. While Samberg then keeps repeating the words "I'm the boss," the reviewer leaves the room, understandably annoyed and disgusted. The video ends with the giant fish delivering the final words "like a boss."

Video

The video features Seth Rogen, recording over the vocals done by Akiva Schaffer on the single.The video adds additional visuals not included with the words of the song. It ends with Samberg's tombstone being shown (which has the epitaph "He was da Best"), and a skeptical Rogen trying to confirm some of the more bizarre events with Samberg.

The video features brief cameo appearances from Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney as the worker that Samberg micromanages, Casey Wilson as the woman giving Samberg the memo, Kristen Wiig as Samberg's office crush Debra, Jason Sudeikis as Samberg's boss and Bill Hader as the man on whom Samberg performs fellatio. It also features Jorma Taccone as the man giving him the lawsuit, and Akiva Schaffer selling him the gun. Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan can be seen in the video as background dancers.

Popularity

Prior to the release of the video on Saturday Night Live, the term "Like a Boss" was not often searched for or used in social context. Though it was indeed searched for prior to the release of the video, the term clearly spiked at release and peaked on Google in April 2009, hitting a 100 on the Google Trend chart.^[2] It has also become popular on social media sites such as Twitter^[3] Tumblr,^[4] and Facebook,^[5] where it is a popular hashtag to cite a task completed, goal achieved or successful action that someone is proud of doing. It has also led to parody videos such as "Like a Bus",^[6] where a bus is shown flying through traffic and often bad weather conditions with no regard or slowing for the bad conditions. On 22 October 2012, "Like A Boss" surpassed 100 million views. The video was featured by The Huffington Post,^[7] and TV Guide.^[8]

Lawsuit

In November 2011 a production team from St. Louis filed charges against Andy Samberg and Co., NBC Universal and Universal Republic Records. At the root of the suit was the claim that Monique “Foxx StarStrukk” Hines and Aleric “Rick Tha Rular” Banks submitted the audio track for "Like a Boss" along with the audio track that would become another hit for The Lonely Island, "Shy Ronnie". The duo claimed that, through a mutual connection in 2008, they knew Samberg and submitted their tracks for inclusion in the upcoming debut album, Incredibad. The Lonely Island then recorded their own lyrics on top of the audio track to create the songs. The duo from StarStrukk productions claimed that they were never compensated properly for their work, both in money and recognition / notoriety. Banks claimed that originally he signed an agreement giving him a 50% ownership of the song, given his position as writer and producer. According to his lawsuit, he received a response from Universal Music Group that gave him only a 25% interest in "Like a Boss." Banks, however, claims that he has yet to see any sort of a royalty for the song. Another track from the duo was later featured on the band's 2011 album Turtleneck & Chain in the song "Shy Ronnie 2: Ronnie & Clyde."^[9]

Censorship

On the NBC version of this digital short, the part where Andy has a gun in his mouth and whines, "Oh fuck, man, I can't fuckin' do it. Shit!" had the shot of Andy with the gun in his mouth shortened and redubbed the line to, "Oh crap, man, I can't effin' do it. Ugh!!"

References

External links

• Beard, Lanford (November 8, 2011). "NBC, Andy Samberg sued for copyright infringement". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 8, 2011. 
• Original video: "Like a Boss" on YouTube
• Censored video: "Like a Boss - Clean Version" on YouTube
• Video and Song Lyrics: "Like a Boss"
• Lonely Island's Song Page: "Like a Boss"