A look inside the Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack and its attempt to re-create the 1996 original’s cross-generational appeal.
“I LOVED IT AS A KID.
I had the merch, the shirts, the shoes, everything,” says Damian Lillard, current NBA superstar of the Portland Trail Blazers, of the 1996 pop culture phenomenon Space Jam. The intergalactic basketball comedy starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes became a must-see family event; its original soundtrack was arguably even bigger — with top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits in R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” and Seal’s cover of
“Fly Like an Eagle” — selling 4.7 million copies, according to MRC Data.
Twenty-five years later, Warner Bros. Pictures’ longin-the-works stand-alone sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy (now starring LeBron James alongside Bugs Bunny), will arrive in U.S. theaters and on HBO Max on July 16. Its soundtrack, featuring an all-star squad including Lil
Uzi Vert, Jonas Brothers,
SZA, John Legend, Lil Wayne and Lillard — who acts in the movie and performs on the soundtrack as Dame D.O.L.L.A. — is out July 9. “We knew there would be a lot of excitement, a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure,” says music supervisor
Kier Lehman (Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse, HBO’s Insecure), who, along with cosupervisor Morgan Rhodes, worked with label partners at Republic Records, producer Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media and James’ production company, SpringHill.
Sammie Taylor, executive vp A&R at Republic, says the first Space Jam soundtrack resonated thanks in part to its cross-generational appeal, and that finding a middle ground for multiple audiences was the hardest part of creating a follow-up. “You’re trying to find songs that moms are going to feel good with their kids listening to, or teenagers are not going to feel like, ‘Oh, this is too corny,’ ” he says. Lead single “We Win” is a result of that multidemographic approach: The song pairs Atlanta rap superstar Lil Baby with gospel veteran Kirk Franklin and has earned 4.5 million ondemand U.S. streams.
Salt-N-Pepa is the only act to appear on both film soundtracks; this time it teamed with Saweetie and Kash Doll on “Hoops,” a move meant to “present the golden era of hip-hop” to a new generation, says Cheryl “Salt” James. Meanwhile, Lillard, who contributed to the song “About That Time,” looks forward to passing down his fandom. “My kid’s going to be watching this movie hearing me being able to share my history with the movie,” he says. “It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”