The long-awaited Luke Cage dropped on Netflix on Friday, Sept. 30 and there's so much to be excited about in the latest installment of the Marvel universe. The superhero was first introduced to audiences, as portrayed by actor Mike Colter, in the series Jessica Jones last year and now he takes center stage in his own TV series, complete with an amazing '90s hip hop soundtrack. It's so cool and nostalgic that you'll want to know how to get the Luke Cage soundtrack, so you can listen to it on repeat. According to Marvel, Marvel’s Luke Cage Original Soundtrack Album will be available on digital retailers and streaming services starting on Oct. 7.
Can't wait that long? I feel you — and so do some fans who have already curated unofficial Luke Cage playlists on Spotify. That's right, the hooded invincible fugitive-turned-hero had devoted fans of its music before it even premiered. And those fans can check out the Marvel and ArtDontSleep event "Marvel's Luke Cage: The Live Score" at The Theater At The Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Oct. 6. According to AXS, the concert's music will be curated by A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Linear Labs' Adrian Younge, who also composed the score to the TV series. Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker told Metro that he's very proud of the music of Luke Cage .
"I think we have a musical platform that is different from any other show on television," Coker said. "And, I think, I mean, I’ll be a little arrogant – I think we are the best music show on television. So I can’t wait for people to see it."
'90s hip hop music is a huge part of the show. Before its debut, Metro reported that Coker is a former music journalist and that Luke Cage would feature guest stars like Faith Evans, Mahershala Ali, Raphael Saadiq, and Jidenna. The initial trailers for the show featured "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" by Ol' Dirty Bastard and "Made You Look" by Nas (video above).
Behind the scenes, Muhammad and Younge crafted the score for the series — along with Miguel Atwood Ferguson leading a 30-piece orchestra, according to Blavity. They approached it as they were creating 13 separate albums for each episode of Season 1, Younge said in a Netflix featurette. In the same video, Coker added that each episode is named after a different Gang Starr song — and the emphasis on hip hop actually has a deeper meaning for the show.
"The mindset was that we wanted to make music that was very soulful and spoke to the various characters," Younge told Blavity in an interview. "The villain had a feel to him, Luke Cage has a feel to him, Misty Knight, etc. We used music to illuminate the characters."
Muhammad and Younge actually knew each other before working on Luke Cage — they were already working on an album called The Midnight Hour when the offer came along, according to an interview by Blavity. "...We stopped working on the album and focused the last nine months on trying to create the best television score ever," Younge said.
It seems that the Luke Cage soundtrack has lived up to that goal.
Image: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix
