Marvel’s Black Panther was released in theaters on February 16, 2018, and in just a few weeks, it made over a billion dollars worldwide. It’s already broken some box office records and it looks like it’s going to break some more. The score for the film was created by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson. His film and tv credits include Creed and New Girl. He’s also Grammy-nominated producer, who’s worked most often with rapper Childish Gambino. In this episode, Ludwig takes apart one of his pieces from Black Panther. The track is called “Killmonger,” and it’s the theme for Erik Killmonger, a character played by Michael B. Jordan. Black Panther is set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, and coming up, Ludwig tells the story of doing research and making recordings in Africa, and how he incorporated that into the score for the film.
(SPOILER ALERT: this episode contains a few spoilers about Black Panther, though not much more than what’s in the trailers. But if you’re someone who, like me, wants to go into a film without any prior knowledge, consider yourself alerted.)
Buy or stream “Killmonger” here.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Illustration by Carlos Lerma.
footnotes
Director Ryan Coogler on IMDB
Baaba Maal
Bach – Saint Matthew Passion, Pt. 1
Metro Boomin – No Complaints
