Kanye West steps up to the mic for The Cleveland Show

A Fox press release today confirmed the horribly-kept secret that Kanye "Voice of This Generation" West will voice a character on The Cleveland Show, a new Family Guy spinoff intended for the fall schedule. A couple of new details have emerged.

We knew West would play kid rapper Kenny West, and now we know West will throw down with Cleveland Jr. in a rap battle to impress fellow student Chanel, voiced by Oscar-nominated Benjamin Button co-star Taraji P. Henson. People.com has some insight about the taping. Apparently, West (Kanye, not Kenny) was a joy to work with, and executive producer Richard Appel said there was a mutual interest in West coming back for more. Would West make a good cartoon character? Would it take away from his beat writing schedule? If they can convince Mike Myers to join the cast, I'm in.

All of this makes for good headlines and good press for the show, but this episode apparently won't run until 2010 (there is no hard date for the show's debut yet, that will probably be set in May). Hopefully, the earlier episodes will be a strong enough lead-in. Seth MacFarlane's fans were loyal enough to get The Family Guy back on the air, they should be loyal enough to make this a strong debut.