(AllHipHop News) The official soundtrack for the Black Panther film is packed with Hip Hop and R&B stars. Grammy-winner Kendrick Lamar oversaw the LP, and he helped recruit SZA, The Weeknd, Jay Rock, Future, Schoolboy Q, James Blake, Khalid, Swae Lee, Travis Scott, Vince Staples, and more for the Top Dawg Entertainment release.
TDE in-house hitmaker Mark “Sounwave” Spears produced several tracks for the project. The Digi+Phonics production team member talked about helping to select the acts that contributed to Black Panther: The Album.
“There were a variety of reasons why each artist was picked,” explained Sounwave to HDD. “From Kendrick, Top Dawg and I already being fans of the artist to finding the right person to match the emotion we were looking for, and also a lot of studying different kinds of music.”
He continued, “We were listening to a massive South African playlist for months, straight to where we became big fans of the sound and culture. And that was an important part, because we wanted to go inside their world to get an organic sound, sonically and emotionally.”
Several African artists were part of the Black Panther: The Album tracklist. Babes Wodumo, Sjava, Yugen Blakrok, and Saudi were introduced to many American listeners thanks to the collection of music from and inspired by the Marvel Studios global blockbuster.
“There’s going to be a wider expression in anything and everything we touch. That’s one of the main reasons you have to keep listening,” declared Sounwave when asked whether Kendrick Lamar attempted to express a wider thematic scope than what was presented in the movie.