Kendrick Lamar crafts original, relevant music for “Black Panther”
After four studio albums of his own, Kendrick Lamar took on the creative challenge of producing “Black Panther: The Album.” Lamar curated this soundtrack for the highly anticipated Marvel Studios film “Black Panther” — some of the music is actually in the movie, while some is just inspired by it. It features artists like as SZA, The Weeknd, Jorja Smith, Khalid and Zacari.
Originally, Lamar was only supposed to work on a few songs for the album, but after seeing the movie, he wanted to have a larger role in creating the soundtrack. There has never in history been a movie this large directed, written, acted and designed by black talent. How could you not want to be part of it?
Lamar’s various themes in his music, such as identity and power, aligned with the themes of the film. It was a perfect collaboration.
Black Panther
Respect to all the artist/producers that allowed me to execute a sound for the soundtrack.
The concept of producing and composing a project other than my own has always been ideal
I appreciate the experience love ones
Continue to be great
— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) February 11, 2018
“Black Panther” features main character T’Challa returning home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king, fighting enemies and overcoming challenges along the way. The album starts off with the explosive track “Black Panther” that begins ominously as the beat leads up to Lamar saying, “wait.”
Lamar is rapping from the perspective of the movie’s main character T’Challa, and there are various parallels and similarities between T’Challa and Lamar himself.
“King of the fighters, king of the fathers, king of the belated/ King of the answer, king of the problem, king of the forsaken,” Lamar raps, comparing his own struggles of being a rapper to being generalized as a Wakandan.
The album slows it down with tracks such as “Bloody Waters” and “The Ways.” Both have steady, head-nodding beats that contrast with the eruption behind “Black Panther.”
Lines from “Bloody Waters” such as “Meet the man in the mask,” and “Hail Mary’s in the sky (Hail Mary’s in the sky), false prophets get buried alive (alive),” go along with the movie’s theme of showing who you truly are. It also subtly nods at the appearance of “untrue rappers” because of their fame in the music industry.
“All The Stars” and “Redemption” bring in pop elements to the album — these songs are more generic, as opposed to other tracks that cover big and controversial ideas. While some people dislike these kinds of tracks on an album like this, these are two of my favorites.
Both of these tracks successfully cover themes that are relevant in the movie as well as in the music industry. In “All The Stars,” the lyrics deal with reaching for the stars to achieve your dreams and success.
Overall, this is the kind of album I think you should listen to before you see the movie, so you understand the themes and narrative better. I think Lamar, in addition to the other producers and artists, does a great job of making an album that addresses a variety of issues that occur in our world and in “Black Panther,” as opposed to just creating a simple soundtrack for a movie.
Phoebe Smith is a senior public relations major. Her column appears biweekly in Pulp. You can email her at phsmith@syr.edu and follow her on Twitter @phoebesmithh5.