Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Soundtrack Single Features Nas: Listen
Update: Listen to "On My Soul" from the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts soundtrack in the video below.
Don't expect to hear Linkin Park tracks in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The seventh installment of the Hasbro film franchise takes place in 1994 — seven years after 2018's Bumblebee, set in 1987, and 20 years before 2007's Transformers — and features a soundtrack befitting '90s Brooklyn. After releasing trailers featuring The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 track "Juicy" and DMX's 1998 single "Ruff Ryders' Anthem," Rise of the Beasts is rolling out its first original single: "On My Soul" by Grammy-nominated rapper Tobe Nwigwe and "King's Disease" rapper Nas, featuring singer-songwriter Jacob Banks, will be available on May 19th.
Shared by the official Transformers Instagram account, the first song off the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Music From the Motion Picture soundtrack album drops online at midnight on Friday. The full track list hasn't been announced, but director Stephen Caple Jr. has teased '90s needle drops in the new movie hitting theaters June 9th.
"We have A Tribe Called Quest. We have Wu-Tang [Clan]. Oh my God, we have so many," Caple told The Hollywood Reporter. "We also have an unheard track that's gonna come with the film. We have a legacy artist who's blessing us with a new track for our film, and I'm so excited about that. It has not been released yet, but I think you guys are really gonna appreciate it when you hear it. He's from the '90s, but I would say that he's arguably one of the top three rappers to ever live. So I'm excited for people to check out what we cooked up with him as well."
Inspired by the Beast Wars storyline, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts takes audiences on a '90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduces the new faction of Transformers — Maximals Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), Airazor (Michelle Yeoh), Rhinox (David Sobolov), and Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa) — to join them as allies in the existing battle for earth. Autobots Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), Bumblebee, Mirage (Pete Davidson), Arcee (Liza Koshy), and Wheeljack (Cristo Fernández) unite with the Maximals and human allies Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback), who are caught in the 'bots war with the Terrorcons: Scourge (Peter Dinklage), Battletrap (David Sobolov), and Nightbird (Michaela Jae Rodriguez).
"You don't need to know much. If anything, Bumblebee got here in 1987, along with Optimus Prime, and they've tried to seek refuge on Earth until they can get back to Cybertron. Ultimately, all you need to know is that they're trying to get back to Cybertron," Caple explained of his Transformers prequel. "If you can go into this movie just knowing that piece of information, you'll be able to track it completely. It doesn't mess up any of the timeline in 2006, 2007. We're actually going in a direction that allows us to protect that side of the universe, but that's all you need to know."
Caple added: "And if you're not familiar with the Beast Wars, I would say to just watch the film itself. You don't have to get caught up with the Beast Wars franchise in order to watch our movie. I feel like this is a standalone."
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts rolls out in theaters June 9th.