Bringing together all of his fellow TDE label affiliates, Kendrick Lamar is able to piece together one of the better albums of 2018 thus far on the “Black Panther” soundtrack.

Typically soundtracks made for major movie productions are mostly flops with big named artists typically phoning in their performances with the exception of a few classic songs. This album for the most part sounds like a Kendrick Lamar album which received plenty of detail from one of hip hop’s top MC’s. Lamar gives us a stellar performance using his intricate voice changing techniques that fans have loved since some of his earliest work.

A couple songs that stand out include “X”, “Opps”, and “All the Stars”. On “X” we get and energetic beat with great features from Schoolboy Q and a strong but not outstanding feature from 2 Chainz. This is where Kendrick Lamar gives us his catchiest chorus on the album that will have the line “Our you on 10 yet” stuck in the heads of listeners everywhere. “Opps” has a solid performance from Vince Staples, but the most interesting part of the song is that we get a taste of fairly unknown artist Yugen Blakrok. The beat on this song can be a bit overbearing for some but go along well with the tone used by Staples and Blakrok. “All the Stars” has had the most radio success but isn’t necessarily the strongest song as it’s bass heavy, futuristic beat sounds overdone. SZA provides a good chorus on the song while Lamar gives maybe his most forgettable verse on the album.

The songs all complement each other very well and go along great with the visuals in the movie. All together the songs are solid but this album isn’t supposed to necessarily blow anyone away. It is however a bright spot in what has been a weak slate of rap albums released this year.

Overall Grade: 8/10