Kendrick Lamar has delivered national hits once again with the hip-hop soundtrack to “Black Panther.” This album is not only for the highly anticipated Marvel film Black Panther but also the album and mood for the rest of Black History Month.
The album had people scrambling to download and finally listen to it when Lamar tweeted the iTunes link on Feb. 9. With artists like Future, Jorja Smith, The Weekend and other big names, this album is representative of black excellence at its finest.
With almost all of the songs either using African instruments or having African language spoken throughout the song, it lets fans know Lamar took his time and took this project seriously, making sure each sound and lyric gave a clear emotion so the listener could feel transported into the world of Wakanda.
It also makes the album a perfect soundtrack for the film Black Panther and the celebrated Black History Month, with so many great African-American musicians on the track list all bringing a different twist to a song. There are a number of songs for different scenarios and scenes in the movie that you can somewhat imagine being transported to while listening to each.
The opening track of the album is a song titled “Black Panther,” which has a feel of being put in T’Challa’s point-of-view, with heavy, dramatic drums and effects, as well as Lamar rapping, to get listeners into Black Panther’s protagonist’s head — but only for a little while, as the song comes in way too short at only 2 minutes.
Since the project involved Lamar there had to, of course, be lyrics peppered with political statements, like in “Paramedic” — a favorite of many — “One fist in the air, I ain’t finna put my hands up.”
Alongside “Paramedic,” the other favorites, according to Twitter, are “All the Stars” with SZA and “X” with 2 Chainz and Saudi. Although it’s obvious, the entire track list gets people not only dancing but also more excited than they already were for the film.
One twitter user, The Hood Oracle, says as much, “Y’all gonna have to mute me from now until March 1st all ima be talking about is Black Panther.” And they aren’t the only ones, with so many people around social media giving this album the recognition it deserves.
You can stream/buy the soundtrack everywhere and get yourself ready for the movie, which comes out this Friday.
To contact Music Editor Hayden Goodridge, email [email protected].
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