Album Review: Black Panther: The Album – Music From And Inspired By

Currently experiencing a ’70s Bowie-like period of manic creativity, Kendrick Lamar has found time in between arena tours and zeitgeist defining solo albums to curate the soundtrack to new superhero flick Black Panther.

The record has turned out to be another vintage effort from K.Dot, and in the remarkable array of talent he has brought together for the project, the rapper has further highlighted the fact that hip hop is currently experiencing another golden age.

This is particularly evident of Lamar’s hometown of LA, where the artists like Flying Lotus, Thundercat and the Odd Future crew have continued to make groundbreaking music that in addition to its own aesthetic brilliance, also exerts a huge influence on the wider culture.

Indeed, this very album is proof of that. Lamar’s involvement in Black Panther makes perfect aesthetic sense, of course, with the the rapper’s radical politics perfectly in tune with the movie’s theme of black empowerment. Lamar has rightly indulged his creative freedom to the full and assembled a galacticos-like array of hip hop and R&B talent, with the likes of SZA, Vince Staples and Travis Scott all featuring on this hugely impressive effort.

Tracks like ‘All The Stars’, ‘Opps’ and ‘King’s Dead’ are all masterful exercises in state-of-the-art hip hop, although even they’re outdone by ‘The Ways’, the supremely catchy hook-up between Khalid and Swae Lee. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, the highlight is concluding track ‘Pray For Me’, a heavyweight collaboration between Lamar and The Weeknd.

An awesome slice of icy industrial, it’s a triumphant conclusion to an album that further extends King Kenny’s all-conquering imperial phase.

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Record label: Interscope
Listen to: 'Pray For Me'
Rating: 8/10