Kendrick Lamar and SZA are poised to take over the world any day now. Their new video for "All The Stars," from the Lamar-produced soundtrack album for Marvel's Black Panther, casts the two artists as young royalty — both on earth and in the far reaches of the galaxy.
Directed by Dave Meyers and The Little Homies (the team of Dave Free and Lamar himself), "All The Stars" features an all-black cast in a biblical-looking landscape, full of bright colors and literal black panthers — all in line with the Afrofuturist aesthetics of the film's fictional setting of Wakanda. SZA's verses and the airy hook, "All the stars are closer," soar over Lamar's evocations of a better life within reach.
"I've been a massive Kendrick fan ever since I first heard him, since his mixtapes," Black Pantherdirector Ryan Coogler recently told NPR's David Greene. The video comes just a week after Lamar tweeted out the album's stacked track list, featuring Future, Anderson .Paak, 2 Chainz, Vince Staples and many of Lamar and SZA's TDE labelmates.
Black Panther: The Album drops Feb. 9 via Interscope Records. Marvel's Black Panther hits theaters nationwide Feb. 16.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDEwMTk5OTQ0MDEzNDkxMDYyMDQ2MjdiMw004))
