The Little Mermaid Star Awkwafina Talks New "Scuttlebutt" Rap (Exclusive)

By Jamie Jirak

The live-action remake of Disney's The Little Mermaid is hitting theaters next week, but the soundtrack became available to stream earlier today. The album features new versions of many fan-favorite tunes from the original animated film that were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman in addition to some new songs by Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda. One such song is "Scuttlebutt," a very Miranda-esque rap that is performed by Scuttle (Awkwafina) and Sebastian (Daveed Diggs). During ComicBook.com's interview with Awkwafina, Diggs, and Jacob Tremblay (Flounder), we asked Awkwafina what it was like to get her own song that was written by the Tony-winning Hamilton scribe. 

"It was such an honor because I didn't even know Scuttle would have a song, and then I was surprised with that gift," Awkwafina shared. "And then also, Lin is an incredible songwriter. So it was so cool to have performed something like that with the help of Daveed, obviously." 

ComicBook.com also spoke with Menken about the addition of "Scuttlebutt." 

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"And then the third [new song], 'Scuttlebutt.' Which was just going to be this little throwaway song. And I gave Lin a little Caribbean piece of music, and then he rapped over it," Menken explained of the third song. He added of working with Miranda, "So the song that was most in my wheelhouse is 'Wild Uncharted Waters' where Lin was very insecure about finding the right lyrics, because he felt he was trying to step into Howard's shoes with a song like that. So we both, you know, had to walk into each other's world. We were both 'part of those worlds,'" Menken added with a coy smile.

The Little Mermaid (2023) Tracklist: 

  1. "Triton's Kingdom" by Alan Menken
  2. "Part of Your World" by Halle Bailey
  3. "Fathoms Below"  by Jonah Hauer-King, John Dagleish, Christopher Fairbank, and Ensemble
  4. "Part of Your World (Reprise)" by Halle Bailey
  5. "Under the Sea" by Daveed Diggs and Cast
  6. "Wild Uncharted Waters" by Jonah Hauer-King
  7. "Poor Unfortunate Souls" by Melissa McCarthy
  8. "For the First Time" by Halle Bailey
  9. "Kiss the Girl" by Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, and Ensemble
  10. "The Scuttlebutt" by Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs
  11. "Eric's Decision" by Alan Menken
  12. "Vanessa's Trick" by Alan Menken
  13. "Part of Your World (Reprise II)" by Halle Bailey
  14. "Kiss the Girl (Island Band Reprise)" by Alan Menken
  15. "Finale" by Alan Menken 

The Little Mermaid is being released in theaters on May 26th.

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