Upcoming political Spike Lee film, BlaKkKlansman will feature a previously unreleased Prince cover in its final credits.
The much anticipated American biographical crime film, directed and co-written by Spike Lee, will be released later this week.
The renowned director stated that the end of the film will feature an old cassette recording of Prince singing Mary Don’t You Weep.
Based on the autobiographical book Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth, the film will offer subtle commentary on America’s current controversial social and political climate.
“BlacKkKlansman uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events.”
Mary Don’t You Weep is historically referred to as a ‘slave song’, written in the context of the American civil war and was said to contain messages of conflict against oppression.
“The song describes origins among the enslaved, and coded messages of hope and resistance.”
Lee stated that in a private screening of the film, Troy Carter, one of Prince’s estate advisors and senior Spotify executive, said that he had the perfect song for the final scene.
“I’ve become very close with Troy Carter, one of the executives at Spotify [and a Prince estate advisor]. So I invited Troy to a private screening. And after, he said, ‘Spike, I got the song.’ And that was ‘Mary Don’t You Weep,’ which had been recorded on cassette in the mid-80s.”
Spike Lee mentioned that he believes the song was intended for him and that Prince would have wanted him to have it for the purpose of the film.
“My brother Prince wanted me to have that song. For this film. There’s no other explanation to me. This cassette is in the back of the vaults. In Paisley Park. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it’s discovered? Nah-ah. That ain’t an accident.”
The film will showcase actual footage from the Charlottesville riots and will provide a confronting reproduction of the discrimination and oppression that has spanned the history of America.
via The Fader.
