I can only listen to the looped beats heard on “Big Shot” or “Pray For Me” so many times, and that is why I enjoyed the fresh new fusion of sounds I heard from the South African inspired tracks. I for one am tired of hearing washed-up, lackluster pop tracks (*cough* “All The Stars” *cough*). Doing so, he is paying respect to his heritage, communicating with his people in the native language that only they will truly understand.Īll of this is to say that Black Panther: The Album shines when South African and American sounds are blended together. Sjava is the only South African artist featured on the album to speak strictly in the language of his home country.
Finally on “Seasons”, one of the most underrated tracks on the project, Johannesburg rapper Sjava raps in the same Zulu fashion we heard earlier from Saudi. “Redemption” is a South African house track featuring Babes Wadumo, and while it is definitely a weaker point lyrically on the soundtrack, the lush vocals from both artists over the infectious production still provide a catchy and enjoyable song. Rather, the artist on the pedestal is female South African artist Yugen Blakrok, who brings a unique flair to the song and closes it out in what ends up being one of the highest points of the entire project. On “Opps”, the star of the track is not Vince Staples or even Kendrick. But I also get to listen to Saudi, a young emcee from Soweto, rap much of his verse alternating between English and Zulu phrases (something I had never heard before, but am now fiending to hear more of). On “X”, one of my personal standouts from the soundtrack, I get to listen to Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, and 2 Chainz trade verses, creating one of the most audibly pleasing tracks of 2018 so far. Kendrick made sure to not only feature unheard-of South African artists, but ensure that they were in the spotlight. I would argue that superhero movies rarely have memorable scores, but Black Panther: The Album is going to be a soundtrack that will stay in my listening rotation for a long time, and that is an incredibly rare occurrence.Īs far as the individual tracks go, the songs on Black Panther: The Album are quite diverse, but at the same time surprisingly cohesive. But that is okay, because Black Panther: The Album is excellent for what it is. There is not a cohesive story, at least to the extent of those aforementioned albums. It is an enjoyable and irresistible body of work, and is further proof that everything Kendrick can get his hand on will turn to gold.īlack Panther: The Album is not DAMN. But Black Panther: The Album proves to be quite the opposite. Ranging from household hip-hop names to artists from South Africa whom I had never heard of before, it is a very diverse crew, so much so that one may expect the project to be clunky and detached due to the wide assortment of players. He had secured a wide range of collaborators for the album. I was not blown away by the lead singles, but as always, I had faith in Kendrick Lamar.
I had moderate expectations for this project. Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, wanted to recruit Kendrick to record just a few songs for the Marvel film, but after viewing a portion of the movie, the Compton rapper took it upon himself to curate and push the entire soundtrack start to finish. But this time the Compton rapper would embark on putting together a body of work unlike anything he had ever created before: the soundtrack to a film. Last year after completing DAMN., his most commercially successful album to date, Kendrick Lamar got right back to work.
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