Kendrick Lamar

Courtesy Photo
The movie marks the first feature produced under Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free's pgLang company, which they announced in 2020.

Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free are teaming up with South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker to produce a comedy film for Paramount Pictures.

The yet-untitled, live-action comedy, written by Vernon Chatman, will “depict the past and present coming to a head when a young Black man, who is interning as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum, discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his,” according to a press statement.

The movie marks the first feature produced under Lamar and Free’s pgLang company, which they announced in 2020. They launched pgLang as a multilingual, artist-friendly service company that’s a record label, movie studio and publishing house combined. Lamar’s younger cousin and rapper Baby Keem became the first artist signed to the pgLang label service. Stone and Parker will be producing for their Park County banner.

Production is slated to kick off this spring. A director has not yet been attached to the film. Paramount Pictures will be responsible for theatrical distribution, home entertainment and television licensing rights on the project, and Paramount Plus will acquire the streaming rights.

“On behalf of Paramount Pictures and the wider ViacomCBS family, we look forward to ushering in the first theatrical collaboration from these creative visionaries, and galvanizing audiences worldwide around a powerful storytelling experience,” said Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins in a statement.

The 13-time Grammy-winning MC announced this past summer that he will be leaving his longtime label Top Dawg Entertainment after 17 years and that he was working on his “final TDE album.” His last solo album, the critically acclaimed DAMN from 2017, topped the Billboard 200 with 603,000 album-equivalent units in its opening week. It also won five Grammys and earned him the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Music. He curated Black Panther: The Album in 2018, which nabbed eight nominations at the Grammy Awards the following year, including best rap performance winner “King’s Dead.” Lamar gave a career-spanning live performance, his first in over two years, at the 2021 Day N Vegas music festival.

 

Kid Harpoon has been named Abbey Road Studios’ first-ever Producer in Residence, with the Grammy winner tasked with both guiding the legendary studio’s vision as well as mentoring future musical talent.

According to the studio, Kid Harpoon “will have complete access to Abbey Road as his creative playground and studio home in the UK, as well as its collection of vintage gear, microphones and instruments” and “will also consult on the studios’ music tech and innovation work.”

“I’m beyond excited to become Producer in Residence at Abbey Road,” Kid Harpoon said in a statement. “In this position, I’m hoping to use my experience to help guide some of the incredible up-and-coming talent we have in the UK while they navigate their way through what can be a difficult industry. Mark and the team have a real desire to give back and develop new talent, which is something I’m really passionate about. To be able to contribute to the Abbey Road legacy in any way is an honor, and I can’t wait to get stuck in!”

The British-born Thomas “Kid Harpoon” Hull has won Grammys for both Record of the Year (for Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”) and Album of the Year (for Harry Styles’ Harry’s House) in recent years. His production and songwriting work also includes Shawn Mendes’ Wonder, Maggie Rogers’ Surrender, as well as songs by Florence + the Machine, Lizzo, King Princess, Noah Cyrus, and Jessie Ware. Most recently, Kid Harpoon produced David Byrne’s new album Who Is the Sky?

In addition to shaping Abbey Road’s sound, Kid Harpoon will also take part in the nearly century-old studio’s free education programs aimed at nurturing the next generation of artists and producers via panels and workshops.

“[Kid Harpoon] brings a spirit of collaboration and innovation that perfectly aligns with our vision. With his creative lead, we’re excited to deepen our artistic community and continue placing creativity at the heart of our home,” Abbey Road’s managing director Sally Davies added in a statement.

CONTINUE READING