New Luke Cage Soundtrack Featurette Examines Hip-Hop Influence

Marvel is expanding it's hero footprint to Harlem with Netflix's upcoming Luke Cage series and a [...]

Marvel is expanding it's hero footprint to Harlem with Netflix's upcoming Luke Cage series and a rather sizable part of making that world feel authentic comes down to the show's soundtrack and score.

Netflix recently released a new featurette focusing on the show's stellar sounds, which will deliver some Hip Hop classics that truly embody the hero and his surroundings. It isn't just a greatest hits compilation, though, as the focus is more on making each episode it's own unique album, as Music Supervisor Adrian Younge explains.

"From a musical perspective, Ali and I look at this as we're creating 13 albums, know what I'm saying? It's 13 episodes like 13 albums. We have music that is inspired by A Tribe Called Quest but at the same time inspired by Wu, and Ennio Morricone, and we all came together and said that we all wanted to make something great. Not just for black people or minorities, just something great, that just happens to be based on our culture. It was one of those things where I was like yo, we have a chance to make history here."

Along with fellow Music Supervisor Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the team is looking to Hip Hop's past and present to create a soundtrack worthy of this Hero's television debut. Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker explains that influence even extends to the episode titles.

"All the episodes are named after different Gang Starr songs, so like this one is Soliloquy of Chaos, the first one is Moment of Truth, I mean, it's all kind of influenced like that. One of the things I was explaining is like the speed of Hip Hop. It happens at the speed of thought so if you really ran into Luke, and then all of a sudden, boom, there's gonna be a beat. That's all it takes."

Fans have waited a long time for Luke Cage to get his due on screen, and it looks like the talented team behind the show's music isn't about to drop the ball.

Luke Cage hits Netflix on September 30th.

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