Black Panther finally hits cinema screens around the world from next week after what seems like the most exciting build-up for a film in modern history. And the hype keeps on coming: today’s tidbit comes via NPR, who interviewed the film’s director Ryan Coogler.
Discussing the film’s Kendrick Lamar-curated soundtrack (for which a track list has been released; obviously Noisey has already reviewed that, such is our anticipation), Coogler mentioned that K Dot agreed to oversee all the music based on how damn good he found the film itself. Initially, he was meant to contribute “a few” tracks, but as soon as he saw the film (not even the whole thing, actually??), his involvement snowballed. Said Coogler:
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And to Marvel’s credit, they really supported the idea of getting some songs from Kendrick. At first, he was just going to do a few songs for the film, and then he came in and watched quite a bit of the movie, and the next thing I know, they were booking a studio and they were going at it.
I feel like every day we get another reason to get worked up over Black Panther. Kendrick is a craftsman, someone whose projects are extremely highly thought-out, and very conceptual. He doesn’t make work for just anyone, so if Black Panther inspired him to create an entire soundtrack, enlisting black artists from across continents and genres, can you imagine how good it is? Damn, indeed.
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