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TORONTO - Canada's Tom Green, the comedian who loves to shock, has a new in-your-face project on the go.
This time, it's a rap album, Prepare For Impact, which was launched last night at a downtown Hooters, where Green and his posse, the Keepin' It Real Crew, put on a free performance for fans.
"I started to love Hooters after me and some friends went on a cross-America skateboard tour that we unofficially turned into a Hooters tour," Green said, during an interview yesterday at a downtown hotel. "We have a song called I Like Hooters on the record and it just seemed like kind of a funny place to launch our record."
The 34-year-old comic-turned-actor, whose hip-hop career began in the early '90s as part of the Juno-nominated Canadian rap group Organized Rhyme (remember Check The O.R.?), leaves none of his familiar hot-bed issues untouched on the new project.
He takes aim at teachers, Hollywood, parents, cancer, his high-profile "ex-bitch" (aka Drew Barrymore) and of course, the media.
"The media has been unkind to me over the years, but also kind -- it's a double-edged sword," he said. "But when you do something different, when you push the envelope, you're going to have to expect some critical negative reaction from the mainstream media... but I think people have moved on to other targets, which is fine."
With a track listing that includes such titles as My Bum Is On Ya Lips, Teachers Suck, Write Rhymes And Act Like An Asshole and People In My Neighborhood, (a song that freely stabs at everyone from Paris Hilton to Fred Durst to Kevin Bacon), it's an easy assumption that Green has just re-situated himself directly in the line of fire.
"I don't really care (if I'm a target), well I do care a little bit -- I am thin-skinned about it," Green said. "I just don't really like it. You work hard on this stuff and you're just trying to do something different and make people chuckle and everyone takes it so damn seriously."
Perhaps his lyrics, like "My bum is on your lips/and if you get lucky, you can suck my d--k," speak for themselves. But for a guy who makes a living from making fun of people, you'd think he'd be able to take what he dishes.
"Well I don't think it's the media's job to make fun of artists -- unless they are going to make fun of the mainstream crap that people are wasting their money on," he said, without even a hint of irony. "At the end of the day, I'm a comedian, even though I have a song called I'm No Comedian."
He's also got a song called I'm An Idiot.
And Green insists the album's not a joke.
"It's not a comedy record, but it is a very funny record... I don't think you can keep doing something for 15 years for a complete joke," he said.
"The reality is, a lot of it is completely true, real things that have happened to me, and I find it somewhat therapeutic and funny to rap on a record. In everything I've done, I've always drawn the root of the comedy from a place of honesty."