It’s Miles’ story, but as the movie aims to import, the mask can belong to anyone - expectations and conventions be damned. “I like tall buildings so I can leap off of ’em,” swaggers Ghanian rapper Blackway on “What’s Up Danger,” the album’s leading track and the song that tracks one of the film’s most important moments. Alongside the swelling emotion, there is rebellion these songs aren’t just mushy, they’re defiant, abrasive, brash. When the songs’ purpose switches to uplift, underpinning the movie’s pivotal moments, it again subverts the expectations of the form as Miles’ journey does on screen. The Afropop of Thutmose’s “Memories” is the sound of the vibrant culture of the melting pot, as is Anuel AA’s “Familia,” a reggaeton track that Miles would almost certainly enjoy listening to alongside his streetwise, Puerto Rican mother Rio. This is where the world is now Juice WRLD and Jaden Smith are two of the biggest rap acts on the planet, so of course, the kids at Miles’ school would be listening to their music in the halls. Likewise, the hip-hop-laden compilation lends life and realism to Miles’ colorfully-animated environments. Like the Black Panther soundtrack before it, the film understands its cultural relevance, the moment it speaks to, and the world it must represent, and does so, making it one of the best hip-hop-oriented film soundtracks ever created. I’m happy to report that the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, itself a different kind of superhero movie in more ways than one, understands this and services this idea as admirably as the film’s titular character does the legacy of his revered namesake. But what happens when the superhero in question represents more than just truth, justice, and the American way? What if the hero must also represent a break from the status quo his profession so often fights to uphold? What if, rather than inspiring the masses of the general audience, the hero is instead an inspiration to a very specific demographic of people who historically found themselves barred from representation in the pages of cape comics and on silver screens? That hero would also need a very specific theme song, not just representative of his mission but of his people, of his upbringing and his culture.
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