What made me want to write music for film,
was that I got a chance to write in any kind of style, type, and genre
I produced rap albums, I wrote music for comedies,
T.V. shows, dramas, sports films...
but this is my first superhero film,
and it takes place in Africa.
It's the first time I've really worked with traditional African Music.
During this experience, I really became
a better musician myself,
and a better composer just by doing this project.
It was a long process of creating the score.
I've been working with director Ryan Coogler
for about ten years now,
and when I read the script he wrote for Black Panther,
I was immediately blown away...
and I thought, the only way I can write music that
fits these colors and images and stories I'm reading is
to go to Africa and do research.
One of the first things I did was to figure out
where to go, you know, it's a big continent,
and there's so much different music
in every country, and every different tribe,
they all have their different instruments,
They all have their different language,
I called a lot of friends that have been traveling around there,
and one of my friends produced an album with an African artist..
his name is Baaba Maal.
I called him, and I was like
"Hey, my name is Ludwig Goransson,
I'm a film composer, and I'm about to score a movie
called Black Panther,
It's about a black superhero in a fictional country
in Africa. Would you have any time for me to
come meet you, or record you, or.. anything?"
And he was like.. "Yeah sure. Just, I'm about to
go on tour, you can come join my tour."
And after following him around on tour for a week,
I was able to borrow his studio, and record his favorite musicians.
That was the start of the Black Panther score, right there.
When I was traveling around with Baaba Maal,
He kind of opened up to his solo shows with this
kind of like, ceremonial... outcall.
Every time I saw it I got goosebumps, and...
and I was like, 'what if we start the movie like that,
what if we start... the score like that?'
Baaba Maal is from the Fulani tribe,
and in this opening scene, you can
hear him sing about an elephant that had just died,
elephant being the synonym for the king.
And it's time for someone to take over,
but you shouldn't be too fast.
One of the instruments that I was drawn to
from the beginning
was called the talking drum...
it's a drum you put on your shoulder, and you squeeze it
and that makes different pitches.
So, you can basically form words with the drum.
The instrument is so loud...
So I was thinking, what if you had 6 players,
playing the same thing?
It starts off like this...
You don't really hear it from the beginning,
and then another player joins, and another,
and then, dynamically, it just grows and grows,
and then it grows into a huge ensemble.
And then I had a solo on top of this...
So you have the group, and the solo on top of that,
and then, the last final element for the talking drum
is T'Challa's name.
[To the beat] T'Challa.
To beef it it a little bit, I put this
8o8 under the beat.
Which is basically doing the same rhythm as the talking drums.
So just the 8o8 and the talking drums sounds like this
This is the basic beat for T'Challa's theme.
So any time he comes in the scene you either hear
the talking drum rhythm, the ensemble rhythm,
or the solo rhythm saying his name.
After I created this beat,
Me and Ryan wanted to see how it would sound
if we added horns on this to make it more royal.
You know, this is still a demo,
More months down the line, when we get closer to
recording this with real players,
they need to see it on a piece of paper.
So I sent my MIDI file to my orchestrator,
they write it down on score paper,
It'll come out like this.
So... when I'm up on the podium,
and conducting the orchestra, and listening
to this, what I just played you guys,
This is what I'm looking at.
People have been waiting for this movie forever,
this is culturally something that has never been done before.
When I went to Baaba Maal's concert, as soon as he started signing,
it was just like waking up from a coma or something.
And I was really trying to re-create that moment with this piece of music.
Music... IS from Africa.
I could never have done this score without
going there and spending time with the Griots,
listening to their stories and rhythms that they
have been passing on from generation to generation,
I just can't wait to go back,
there's so much more to study and learn.
