From Hollywood to Home: Black Voices in Entertainment
- Travis Scott weaves Homer's prose with modern lyricism, creating a ghostly track alluding to Odysseus' long journey.
- James Blake serves as the Siren, his distinct croon over a minimal beat between Scott's verses.
- Travis Scott's lyrics blend myth and modern pain, exemplified by lines about marching to a beach and seeking a Siren.
- Ludwig Goransson guides the musical journey; he's a three-time Academy Award winner for scores including Black Panther, Sinners, and Oppenheimer.
- Christopher Nolan cast Travis Scott to nod to oral poetry's analogy to rap; Scott previously contributed The Plan to Tenet.
With Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey now in theaters, Travis Scott’s end credits song “When I’m Home,” a collaboration with James Blake and Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Goransson, has arrived on streaming services.
The rapper, who has the small role of a bard in Nolan’s cinematic retelling of the Greek epic poem, weaves together Homer’s prose with modern lyricism on the ghostly track that alludes to Odysseus’ long journey.
“I’m marchin’ to this beach, I’m havin’ band withdrawals / Ran to a god, I’m askin’, ‘Please, lead me,’” Scott raps. “These tools I’m workin’ with ain’t really sharp at all / Lookin’ for a Siren, hopin’ that they call.”
Blake serves as the Siren of the song, his distinct croon over minimal beat between Scott’s verses. “Don’t speak, hold him instead / Look up and see, the man on the ledge / And he will know what it was, when he’s home,” Blake sings.
Guiding the whole musical journey is Goransson, already a three-time Best Original Score Academy Award winner for Black Panther, Sinners, and Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Nolan previously explained why he cast Scott — who contributed the Goransson-produced “The Plan” to the director’s 2020 film Tenet — in The Odyssey. “I cast [Scott] because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan said.
This article originally appeared on Rolling Stone.
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