Kendrick Lamar & The Weeknd’s Collabo Is Fit For A Superhero Journey (Audio)

One week from today (February 9), The Black Panther soundtrack will release on TDE/Interscope Records. With Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg at the helm, the compilation album has already witnessed strong showings from K-Dot, SZA, and Jay Rock. With the tracklist made available earlier this week, Lamar releases his latest collaboration with The Weeknd, “Pray For Me.”

Prayer is a strong element in the music of both of these superstars. Kendrick’s Grammy Award-winning DAMN. featured the Compton, California MC using the line “ain’t nobody prayin’ for me” as a motif. On Travi$ Scott’s Rodeo, one of the standout moments was Weeknd collabo’ “Pray 4 Love.”

Kendrick Lamar Opens The Grammys With Dave Chappelle & A BANG (Video)

It is a similar merger of genres with a Pop music polish that finds “Pray For Me.” Abel sings the kinds of lines that are fit for a superhero’s journey: “I’m always ready for a war again / Go down that road again / It’s all the same / I’m always ready to take a life again / You know I’ll ride again / It’s all the same (ooh, ooh, ooh) / Tell me who’s gon’ save me from myself / When this life is all I know / Tell me who’s gon’ save me from this hell / Without you, I’m all alone.

Kendrick then spits his rap in a way that is authentic to him, but tailored to what’s on the screen. “I fight the world, I fight you, I fight myself / I fight God, just tell me how many burdens left / I fight pain and hurricanes, today I wept / I’m tryin’ to fight back tears, flood on my doorsteps / Life a livin’ hell, puddles of blood in the streets / Shooters on top of the building, government aid ain’t relief / Earthquake, the body drop, the ground breaks / The poor one with smoke lungs and Scarface / Who need a hero? / You need a hero, look in the mirror, there go your hero / Who on the front lines at ground zero? / My heart don’t skip a beat, even when hard times bumps the needle.” Kendrick presents all types of conflict in a way that’s uplifting to the listener. Like all great soundtrack cuts, this song aims to play perfectly on screen, and in the car on the way home.

Kendrick Lamar’s Latest Video Shows The Many Complexities Of Love

Previously, these two linked for Starboy‘s “Sidewalks” back in 2016. In addition to the artists from what’s already been released, The Black Panther soundtrack will feature Anderson .Paak, Ab-Soul, 2 Chainz, Vince Staples, Swae Lee, and Travi$ Scott.