Kendrick Lamar will co-curate and co-produce Black Panther: The Album for Marvel. A single by Lamar featuring SZA was also released Thursday.
Lamar will work on the album with Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, the founder of Top Dawg Entertainment, the label behind Lamar and SZA. Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who chose Lamar himself, according to the Marvel press release, will also be collaborating with the two.
“Marvel Studios’ Black Panther is amazing, from its cast to its director,” Lamar said in the press release. “The magnitude of this film showcases a great marriage of art and culture. I’m truly honored to contribute my knowledge of producing sound and writing music alongside Ryan [Coogler] and Marvel’s vision.”
The single featuring SZA has been embedded below.
“I am honored to be working with such an incredible artist whose work has been so inspirational, and whose artistic themes align with those we explore in the film,” Coogler said. “I can’t wait for the world to hear what Kendrick and TDE have in store.”
According to the release, aside from this being the first time Lamar curated and produced a movie soundtrack, it’s the first time he’s ever written and performed music for a movie at all. It’s also the first time Marvel is gathering together original music for one of its movies.
By the way, Isaiah Rashad, Jay Rock and ScHoolboy Q are just some of the other artists under Top Dawg Entertainment. With the combined star power of Lamar and a Marvel movie though, anybody from anywhere would probably sign up for this.
It’s like Prince pumping out tunes for the Batman soundtrack. If we can get Michael B. Jordan tearing up an art museum while Lamar is blasting in the background, I’ll see the movie every day it’s in theaters.
Black Panther opens Feb. 16.