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Kendrick Lamar And SZA Release 'All The Stars' Single From 'Black Panther'

Kendrick Lamar will co-produce the soundtrack for the upcoming Marvel film <em>Black Panther</em>.
Dimitrios Kambouris
/
Getty Images
Kendrick Lamar will co-produce the soundtrack for the upcoming Marvel film Black Panther.

Last month, Kendrick Lamar snuck a blink-and-you'll-miss-it breadcrumb in the music video for the song "LOVE." In it, a clapperboard held in front of the camera reads: "B. Panther soundtrack coming soon."

Today, Lamar's label Top Dawg Entertainment announced its "first move" of the year — that Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment president Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith would be overseeing the soundtrack for the upcoming Marvel film Black Panther. The pair, in collaboration with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler — best known for the award-winning 2015 film Creed — would be both selecting songs for the film as well as creating them specifically for it. (Early trailers feature an apocalyptic-sounding version of Vince Staples' 2016 track "War Ready.")

"I'm truly honored to contribute my knowledge of producing sound and writing music alongside Ryan [Coogler] and Marvel's vision," says Lamar in a press release.

Top Dawg has dropped the first official song from the project, "All The Stars," which features Lamar and his TDE labelmate SZA, a Sounwave-produced track that's an airy and triumphant ode to love and perseverance.

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Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.