Released with the new Marvel movie "Black Panther," its soundtrack came out of nowhere, following the movie's themes and potentially inviting for viewers to see the film.
"Black Panther: The Album" was created by record label Top Dawg Entertainment; including raps by artists Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, SZA, Isaiah Rashad, Ab-soul and "Kung Fu Kenny"-himself, Kendrick Lamar.
Combined, these artists collaborated with a few features created to create an album that can be viewed as more than a movie soundtrack, producing just a fun album in general.
The opening theme track named, “Black Panther” starts with a quiet chant with African roots and followed by African drums. Then, the melody of the song kicks in accompanied by a beautiful steel drum.
Then, Lamar comes in rapping, “King of City / King of my country / King of my homeland / King of the culture / King of the soldiers / King of the bloodshed." The lyrics translate to representing that T'Challa, the Black Panther, is the king of the Wakanda - a fictional city created by Marvel. As it continues, the song splits into two perspectives of the characters; starting with the pleasant king of Wakanda T’Challa before the beat turns darker with the ego of the Black Panther.
While the album's theme song set the tone for what was to come, there were some clear mistakes that need to be addressed.
One would be the song “Kings Dead” which has Kendrick, Jay Rock, James Blake and an annoying appearance from Future. The song was clearly created as a cash grab laid over a well-produced beat.
Beginning with an African chant, it drops into an impressive African-trap fusion beat that was wasted by lyrics that were underwhelming at best. The artists took a mumble rap approach with the repetition of “I gotta go get it / gotta go get it / I gotta go get it / I gotta go get it," further trashed by featuring Future's grandma-infused voice.
Across the album, sadly Kendrick's performance fails to meet expectations. With K-Dot being on of the best hip hop influences to date I felt like he could added a little more lyricism to some of his songs.
Nevertheless, all of the songs used in the film fit with the mood well, including a couple of the album's features in “All the Stars” and “Pray For Me."
“All the Stars” fit the movie scene really well providing a club type feel the to the song. This track featured SZA which her voice and the beat meshed really well with the beat. Kendrick voice in the also added a little bit of touch to the song as well with techno sounding voice.
“Pray for me” featured the artist The Weeknd who provides some texture to this with his vocals. This song goes into one of themes of the the movie which I will not go into because we do not spoil movies here. However, the message behind this song was really inspiring.
Now my favorite song on this album which was sadly not in the movie was “Big Shot," featuring Travis Scott. The beat is crazy with a flute playing in the background merged with trap throughout the song. I also like how Kendrick played with flow on this track using his lyrics from his feature on the popular song “New Freezer” by Rich the Kid. Travis Scott stayed with same flow as Kendrick but using his distinct voice to make it distinguish the two.
Overall, this album has a few bangers and the album does connect with movie in good ways and bad.
When this album is good, it's great. However, when the album is bad, it takes a pie straight to the face.
3.5/5
