Black Panther: The Album

This is an album that speaks to the times. It’s something you would include in a time capsule for people 100 years from now who are curious about how we lived in the late 2010s.

The Black Panther soundtrack is also one of the best rap albums of this young year, at once an expressive and cohesive addition to Kendrick Lamar’s oeuvre and a thoughtful mixtape from some of R&B and hip-hop’s best.

Though informed by the blaxploitation soundtracks of the ‘70s and the label-driven hip-hop soundtracks of the ‘90s, Black Panther: The Album is very much of its time: a well-produced and incredibly cohesive album with the loose swagger of a curated playlist.

Put simply: most of the songs are good, but very few of them work all the way through.

Given the level of the performances, the majority of the guests evidently approached this as a Kendrick Lamar album, not as a soundtrack. Black Panther: The Album serves both purposes well.

Kendrick’s Black Panther soundtrack is a unifying work – like a great, mixtape-like artist showcase – that captures the spirit of Coogler’s film perfectly.

Though not as powerful as Lamar’s own albums, it’s similarly diverse, with elements of boudoir R&B, sinister street creep and ebullient electro dancehall stippled with a variety of sonic detail, such as whistle and kalimba, reflecting the film’s African setting.

How this all will works in the context of the film is an intriguing question, but it certainly hangs together as an standalone album, albeit a less consistent one than Lamar’s solo releases.

Black Panther: The Album is an instantly enjoyable project that allows its featured artists to shine under the watchful eyes and ears of Kendrick Lamar.

Above all, it's an affirmation of Kendrick Lamar's powers, a fascinating entry in a discography that is inarguably the decade's deepest.

Marvel soundtracks have a new gold standard, and it’s this.

Despite all its moving parts, and its by-the-numbers singles, Black Panther The Album is finely-tuned, aware of its audience, its objectives, and the stakes.

Overall, the movie was better than the soundtrack. The mix of hip-hop and R&B gave the soundtrack a consistency, but the production is more interesting than the majority of the lyrics. However, the fact that this comic book film has a hip-hop soundtrack only strengthens the bond (which I’m fond of pointing out) that exists between both cultures.

Black Panther The Album boasts compelling production and features, but is let down a bit by the core voices.