LOS ANGELES (AP) — When rapper-actor Frequent was a child, he carried towels and sneakers as a Chicago Bulls ball boy who was shut sufficient to listen to the squeak of footwear and the roar inside the world.
A long time later, Frequent helps set a unique sort of tone for basketball: He has teamed up together with his longtime collaborators to compose “Victory” because the official theme for NBA on Prime, the streaming platform introduced Thursday. He labored with Karriem Riggins and James Poyser on the track, which will probably be part of Amazon’s first unique season of NBA protection.
Frequent mentioned he drew some inspiration for the track by watching basketball.
“Basketball has a soul to it,” mentioned Frequent, a three-time Grammy winner, who has additionally received an Emmy and Oscar. “It’s nostalgic but forward. The rhythm, the harmony, the movement, the teamwork, the star player. We wanted to capture all that in sound.”
After studying Amazon needed him as a composer, Frequent mentioned one among his first calls was to his mom to share the information. It was a second he described as an ideal partnership from the beginning.
“You never know where God is going to lead you,” Frequent mentioned. “You just got to stay open and be true to your craft, because now I feel like I’m part of the NBA in the way I’m supposed to be.”
The track will function the signature sound of NBA on Prime every week beginning with the upcoming season. It was recorded with a 70-piece orchestra at a studio in Nashville.
The trio — whose credit span hip-hop, jazz and soul — produced three variations of the rating together with orchestral, hip-hop and rock.
Manny Marroquin, a Grammy-winning engineer, will combine the ultimate recordings earlier than the theme’s Oct. 24 debut throughout Prime Video’s opening-night doubleheader that includes the Boston Celtics on the New York Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Poyser mentioned it was essential for the group to create a melody that would stay in followers’ heads lengthy after the printed.
“We knew it had to be something that you could just hum,” mentioned the three-time Grammy winner. “Like when you hear it, you got to be able to remember the melody.”
“When you hear the orchestra hit and those drums drop, it just feels like the game,” added Riggins. “It’s got soul, energy and motion. Just like basketball.”
Prime Video govt Amina Hussein mentioned the streaming platform needed a “sonic identity” that felt true to the tradition of the sport.
“One thing that’s a baseline for everything we do is authenticity,” mentioned Hussein, govt producer of NBA on Prime. She’s additionally head of U.S. sports activities on-air expertise for Prime Video “We really want people to feel like they’re part of the broadcast. You want viewers at home to believe in you, to sit down, bob their heads with you, and feel like they’re watching the game with friends.”
For Frequent, the venture felt like future fulfilled.
“I grew up wanting to play basketball, became a ball boy for the Bulls and was there for Michael Jordan’s first exhibition game,” said Common, whose late father, Lonnie Lynn, played in the American Basketball Association. “But as a musician now, I feel like I’m part of NBA history in the way I was meant to be.”
The collaborators hope “Victory” resonates for a lot of generations — very similar to NBC’s “Roundball Rock” — and opens doorways for extra artists of coloration in sports activities scoring.
“Three Black men creating a theme song for the NBA on Amazon. That’s unprecedented,” Frequent mentioned. “We hope some kid grows up hearing this and thinks, ‘We can compose too.’”
