(AllHipHop News) The tradition of Hip Hop-flavored albums accompanying motion pictures saw a resurgence in recent years. For example, Black Panther: The Album, Superfly, Bad Boys For Life: The Soundtrack, and Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack each featured high-profile rap stars.
It should come as no surprise that director Angel Manuel Soto’s Charm City Kings could have its own original soundtrack curated by a Hip Hop figure. Charm City Kings stars Robert “Meek Mill” Williams in a supporting role.
The Grammy-nominated emcee from Philadelphia might be involved in making a full-length album for the film as well. Veteran music producer Swizz Beatz is also attached to the potential project.
“Well, Swizz signed on to do it, but he can only do six records, and then Meek’s people also called me, and he wants to do it also. So I think those two are gonna try and figure it out. Hopefully, we’ll have one, but it’s still up in the air at the moment,” Charm City Kings producer Caleeb Pinkett told Variety when asked if there will be an official soundtrack.
Pinkett did confirm that music plays an important role in the drama about Baltimore dirt bikers. Meek Mill’s “Milladelphia” (featuring Swizz Beatz) and “Uptown Vibes” (featuring Fabolous & Anuel AA) are both used in the movie which reportedly took a big chunk of its $450,000 music licensing budget.
“I wanted the Meek records whether he was in the movie or not. Meek was in jail when the movie was starting to go. I had spoken to Meek a year or so before we started early on, and he was in. Then he goes to jail and I’m like ‘OK, tragic. Well….,'” said Pinkett.
He continued, “I was a month out from shooting and all of the sudden he was released. It was crazy, but we wanted Meek’s songs in the movie no matter what, because his sound, especially those two records in particular that we have in the film, are synonymous with that bike culture that our movie is about.”
Charm City Kings is being released via Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. It was co-written by Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight).
Besides Meek Mill, the cast also includes Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Will Catlett, Teyonah Parris, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, Kezii Curtis, and Pacino “Chino” Braxton. Charm City Kings was scheduled to screen at the 2020 SXSW Festival before the event was canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
