Friday, March 16, 2018

Kendrick Lamar will probably get an Oscar nomination (or two)

Black Panther is, probably without any argument, the movie of the winter. It's making a lot of money, and it isn't really even a big money making time of year for movies. It's something of a cultural touchstone, given its heavily African American cast, while at the same time being a well reviewed film in a money making genre.
For the record, I was a huge fan of the movie, and the thing that I took away from it was how well the music played with the action. There wee a few songs that stand out, appearing at various points in the movie itself, or in the closing credits, but the kicker for me was the score.
The score borrowed heavily from "Pray for Me" by The Weeknd featuring Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick has writing credits on this song, as well as the rest of the soundtrack. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you should, and just know that you will hear this sampled quite frequently:
The questions I could see involve the musical preference of the Academy, but Eminem has won the Oscar for 8 Mile, and Three 6 Mafia won it for Hustle & Flow. In fact, it is more common for a hip hop song to win than not if it is nominated.
And for Black Panther, the music was so integral, and there was so much original content and scoring it seems unlikely that the Academy will leave it un-nominated. With no major Disney releases (the typical winner in this category) it's hard to imagine many challengers for the award by year's end.