How ‘The Mandalorian’ Impressed One of many Yr’s Greatest Rap Movies

Like so many children of the Blockbuster era, the eclectic Miami rapper Denzel Curry, 27, grew up renting the identical film time and again. For Curry, it was Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi. His father, who he immortalized in his 2019 anthem “Ricky,” put him on to Jedi. As soon as he did, Curry by no means needed to look at anything. “Luke Skywalker with the inexperienced lightsaber and shit,” he remembers pondering. “Oh, this shit is difficult.” Ultimately, Ricky needed to say, “man, watch one other Star Wars film!” Curry moved on to his all-time favourite, The Empire Strikes Again, and ultimately to the complete franchise, from the prequels to the modern-day TV sequence.

Curry’s present obsession? The Mandalorian. He loves the way in which it echoes stuff like The Good, the Dangerous, and the Ugly or Lone Wolf and Cub. He notably preferred the sequence’ second-season finale, which impressed his grandest video manufacturing but: “X-Wing.” At a time when movies typically get sidelined, the trippy visuals in “X-Wing” are wildly formidable, that includes Curry piloting a spacecraft round a spot he calls Komodo Metropolis. For music and sci-fi nerds alike, the video, launched alongside the “Prolonged Version” of his newest album, Soften My Eyez See Your Future, is a uncommon deal with, and a stellar three minutes.

Earlier than explaining the video’s origin, Curry kindly asks if I’m caught up with The Mandalorian—a respectful spoiler alert. Then he takes me again to his inner monologue whereas watching the present’s previous few minutes. “An X-wing reveals up. And it’s like, ‘An X-wing? Nice!’ After which I used to be pondering, ‘Wait a minute. There’s just one individual that drives that shit. They ain’t gon’ do this shit.’ So that you see any person with a cloaked hoodie. … You then see the glove and the inexperienced lightsaber, and it was like, ‘They did that shit! Oh shit!’”

The impression of Luke Skywalker showing for a deus ex machina hit his complete family arduous. His girlfriend began crying. Curry was impressed to sing. “The hook simply got here to me, naturally.” He croons it fortunately, “I don’t desire a automobile, I desire a X-wiiiing.” He thought, “That is what the rap sport wants”—a hero “that don’t take no shit, that’s nonetheless hearth, however on the similar time is a power for good. That’s what impressed me to deliver sci-fi into the music.”

Collaborating with producer David Wept, Curry labored on the video’s remedy, imagining the minute particulars and expanded universe of Komodo Metropolis. Within the spirit of the unique Star Wars trilogy, he needed to make use of “actual locations, much less CGI.” Nonetheless, he knew the finances can be a difficulty, so he squirreled away cash because it was coming in from reveals and streams to splurge on the manufacturing.