The Lonely Island is a comedy rap group consisting of filmmakers Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg (aka The Dudes). The group was originally formed in Berkeley, California - in 2001 - but they now reside in New York City. They wrote, produced, and were featured in the "SNL Digital Shorts" on Saturday Night Live (Samberg was a cast member, Taccone and Schaffer were writers) most notably "Lazy Sunday," "Dick in a Box" featuring Justin Timberlake, "Jizz in My Pants, "I Just Had Sex" featuring Akon, and "I'm On a Boat" featuring T-Pain. In August 2007, "Hot Rod" was released, which was co-written by the Dudes (with Pam Brady) and directed by Akiva. It co-starred Andy, Jorma and fellow SNL-ers Bill Hader and Chris Parnell, among others.

On February 10, 2009 the Lonely Island's debut record "Incredibad" was released. It includes most of the SNL Digital Shorts as well as new songs featuring E-40, Julian Casablancas, Beck, Jack Black, and Norah Jones.

On their YouTube channel, The Lonely Island announced an upcoming album on October 28, 2010, which would be released in the spring of 2011. On December 18, 2010, the SNL Digital Short was the official music video of "I Just Had Sex" (featuring Akon), the first single off the album.

On January 29, 2011, the group debuted "The Creep" featuring Nicki Minaj and a cameo by filmmaker John Waters, on SNL and YouTube. On March 15, 2011, Direct Current Music reported that the album would be named Turtleneck & Chain and would be released on May 10, 2011. On April 1, 2011, The Lonely Island appeared as guests on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where they premiered the lead track, "We're Back!", as well as the new album cover. On April 19, 2011, the group released "Motherlover" featuring Justin Timberlake as the fourth single from the album. This song was last featured on season 34 of SNL.

The group held a fundraiser to promote their new album on April 16, 2011. This event was at Amoeba Music in Berkeley, California. There were only 250 tickets available, and the only way to obtain a ticket was to preorder their album. They hosted a Q&A session and an autograph session. Shortly after, "Motherlover" was released on iTunes. On May 7, they released a new track, "Jack Sparrow", featuring Michael Bolton. Turtleneck & Chain was both Emmy and Grammy nominated (for Best Comedy Album).

On January 26, 2013, the group released a new single on iTunes and Google Music, "YOLO" featuring Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar. They also released a music video on their YouTube channel which revealed a new album was coming in 2013. On May 4th they announced that their new album will be called The Wack Album, also releasing its cover art and confirming that it will include people they have worked with in the past such as Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga and some new collaborators like Billie Joe Armstrong and Adam Levine. They also stated that each week until the album comes out they will release a new song or video from the album on each Wednesday called "Wack Wednesdays." The album was released on June 11, 2013. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.