Kendrick Lamar | Black Panther: The Album (Music From & Inspired By) (LP)

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2018 soundtrack to the Marvel film, curated by and featuring Kendrick Lamar on five tracks plus SZA, James Blake, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, Anderson Paak, The Weeknd and others. Black Panther is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Ryan Coogler, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Robert Cole, and stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther, alongside Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis. In Black Panther, T'Challa returns home as king of Wakanda but finds his sovereignty challenged by a new adversary, in a conflict with global consequences.

A culturally momentous film directed by a black man, featuring a black lead actor and a predominantly black supporting cast, Marvel Studios' Black Panther is augmented with an album powered by Kendrick Lamar. It's an unprecedented convergence of the mainstream film industry with an uncompromising musician thriving commercially and artistically. Director Ryan Coogler sought Lamar out to contribute to the album, but the artist ended up involved with every track, credited in varying combinations as headliner, featured artist, co-songwriter, and co-producer, with long-term producer Sounwave a factor in all but three cuts. Subtitled "Music from and Inspired By," this is not a soundtrack in the strictest sense. Indeed, a significant portion of the content -- from whole tracks like the Travis Scott turn "Big Shot," to the part where Future quotes Juicy J's "Slob on My Knob" -- has no relation to the film, though there's a reflectively militant quality to a high percentage of the verses. Elements that are alternately obvious and subtle, including tribal-futuristic drums, audio-logo-like mentions of character names, and ululations (the last instance via the Weeknd on the despairing but proud finale), are threaded throughout to maintain the connection. They frame Lamar, a central figure as he proclaims his sovereign rank and examines its pitfalls -- not a stretch for him. The set has a major crossover single bid in the form of "All the Stars," an elegantly crafted SZA showcase that sounds at once like a defiant hero's anthem and a love theme. Another canny aspect in the album's assemblage is its inclusion of several artists from South Africa. The most notable appearance is made by Yugen Blakrok, "half-machine" Johannesburg native who boasts of "crushing any system that belittles us," references Millie Jackson, and leaves a pile of smoldering rubble in her wake. Lamar also enlists England's Jorja Smith and James Blake, and a Stateside crew that includes Mozzy, Ab-Soul, and Anderson Paak, as well as SOB x RBE, who, like Coogler, represent the Bay Area. Given the level of the performances, the majority of the guests evidently approached this as a Kendrick Lamar album, not as a soundtrack. Black Panther: The Album serves both purposes well.

Tracklist

A1    Black Panther
A2    All The Stars
A3    X
A4    The Ways
B1    Opps
B2    I Am
B3    Paramedic
B4    Bloody Waters
B5    King's Dead
C1    Redemption Interlude
C2    Redemption
C3    Seasons
C4    Big Shot
C5    Pray For Me

*Audio and/or tracklist may vary slightly from the vinyl version.

Label: INTERSCOPE RECORDS
Rel. Date: 05/11/2018
UPC: 602567359562

• Released: 5/11/2018
• Genre: Soundtrack
• Format: Vinyl
• Format Detail: LP