We Are Shook: Kendrick Lamar’s “Black Panther” Music Videos Are Already the Best of the Year

Another reason to love Black Panther.

Black Panther is kicking goals all over the place, getting the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any Marvel movie and looking to break box office records as it opens across the world this weekend.

But even if it wasn’t critically adored, culturally revered or certain to make bank, it would still have an original soundtrack by Kendrick Lamar, and that’s just something most films can’t brag about.

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This week, as the Black Panther promotional roll-out crescendos, Lamar dropped videos for two singles off the OST, including his grandiose and cinematic SZA collaboration “All the Stars” (which closes the flick) and “King’s Dead”, the relentless and aggressive tune sung from the perspective of the villainous Killmonger (played by Michael B. Jordan in the movie, and, technically, by Kendrick in the song).

First came the clip for “All the Stars”, which capitalises on the opulent Afrofuturism of Wakanda, the picture’s fictional African setting. It’s a visual marvel, helmed by Dave Meyers & ‘the little homies’ (the ‘group’ responsible for most of Lamar's videos, which may or may not just be Kendrick himself).

Though it was struck with criticism for maybe ripping-off the work of British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor, the iconography is significant, following in the footsteps of a picture the New York Times is calling “a defining moment for Black America”.

Today comes the video for “King’s Dead”, which also features Jay Rock, Future and James Blake on the track. Directed by Dave Free (also of ‘the little homies’) and Jack Beggert, it shows Lamar working a stressful corporate job and flipping off traffic from the middle of a (presumably) Oakland intersection. It’s visceral, ferocious and seemingly filmed with Instagram’s Superzoom function; a perfect aesthetic for the modern, city-dwelling and (perhaps rightfully) spiteful Killmonger.

(Coarse language warning.)

Kendrick has been nominated for Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music awards three times in the past three years, winning twice (for “HUMBLE” in 2017 and with Taylor Swift for “Bad Blood” in 2015).

Adding another MTV Video Music award to the mantle will probably be the least impressive accolade Kendrick and the Black Panther team manage in the next twelve months, but with both “All the Stars” and “King’s Dead” up for contention, it’s probably guaranteed.

Photo: YouTube (KendrickLamarVEVO)