Enigmatic rapper/producer Kanye West, who has been holed up in his recording studio in Hawaii recovering from the aftermath of "Taylor-gate," is about to make his first nationally televised appearance in a long time, and he's doing it as a cartoon.

According to Access Hollywood, Kanye will be playing 19-year-old MC Kenny West on the upcoming episode of Fox's 'Family Guy' spinoff, 'The Cleveland Show.' In the episode West will be battling Cleveland Brown for the attention of a female character played by actress Taraji P. Henson.

"It was surprising to us that [he] was so into it that he came to the table [read], and wonderfully surprising how cool he was, how funny he was, and how unassuming he was," 'The Cleveland Show' executive producer Mike Henry said. "He's just a great presence."


Henry, who also voices Cleveland's character on the show, went on to explain that Kanye's appearance came about after the rapper invited the show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, to his house. "We knew Kanye was a big 'Family Guy' fan because he invited [creator] Seth [MacFarlane] to his house a year or two ago," Henry explained. "And there was a mention on his blog when the spin-off was announced that he was excited about it. We knew he was a big fan and a lot of us are fans of his."

Not only was Kanye a natural with the timing and delivery of his lines, he also offered some humble input regarding his dialog. "Before we came to the table ... there was only one line he didn't love and he came up with another idea and in a completely modest, nice way said, 'Would you mind if I changed just this one line?'" said another producer on the show. "Our feeling was, how many raps have we written? One? And how many has he written? Be our guest!"

The show will air on Sunday, May 2, 2010 on FOX.

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