Janelle Monáe has released a brand-new song titled “Stronger,” taken from the soundtrack to the forthcoming Netflix show We The People.
Executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, the 10-part series features a number of big musical names, such as Monáe, HER, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Adam Lambert, who teach viewers about civil rights movements. Meanwhile, Monáe’s “Stronger” rolls out with an up-stroked reggae rhythm, as the Dirty Computer singer waxes poetic about seeking solidarity in the face of adversity. “Some of the friends taught me how to dream / Some of the friends taught me how to fight,” Monáe sings. “Even those times when we don’t agree / We know we all tryna save the same day / We don’t want the life without the liberty.”
Monáe has woven civil rights issues into her music over the last few years, such as when she released “Turntables,” for the 2020 documentary about Stacey Abrams, All In: The Fight For Democracy. Of writing music to inspire change, Monáe told Rolling Stone: “What is a revolution without a song? I started thinking about all the people on the front line. What could be my gift to them? It was this song to remind them that the tables are turning. We’re seeing that progress is being made, even in the midst of dealing with such traumatic events. We have figured out a way to be the solution. I wanted this to be my gift because revolutionaries need love too. They need inspiration, and they need an anthem. This is my stab at that.”
Listen to “Stronger” above, and check out We The People when it hits Netflix on July 4. Ahead of them, watch a trailer below.
Late last month, Netflix’s dramedy series Master Of None returned to the streaming service after a four-year hiatus with a renewed focus on Lena Waithe’s character Denise and her partner, Naomi Ackie’s Alicia. As the series now focuses on the ups and downs of a single relationship rather than Aziz Ansari’s character Dev’s quest romance, the third season bears the subtitle Moments In Love.
The subtitle also applies to a new “live music experience” released today to promote the show, which features up-and-coming Black and queer R&B artists telling their stories of love. Included in the performance are Asiahn, a Los Angeles singer-songwriter who has written for the likes of Dr. Dre and Drake, Avery Wilson, who gained notice as a contestant on The Voice, Durand Bernarr, who’s sung backing vocals for Erykah Badu and The Internet, and Tiffany Gouché, a longtime industry vet whose musical family includes D Smoke and SiR, her cousins.
“Moments In Love” also includes a conversation between Waithe and neo-soul pioneer Maxwell. Shot at Winston House, the performance highlights the same sort of complex, unconventional love depicted in the show, making it a perfect pairing — and a fitting introduction to some of the most unique and talented rising stars in music.
Watch “Moments In Love” in love above and catch season three Master Of None streaming now on Netflix.
Netflix’s animated series We The People drops in exactly one month, and today, one of the stars set to be highlighted in the series, HER, has shared her musical contribution to its soundtrack, “Change.” Opening with a mean bass riff, the song describes parts of the political process and advocates for education and participation, acclaiming the power of one person to make a difference. “One day, I’ll be a leader,” she sings. “Believe in ‘We the people.’”
The singer has been lauded in recent months for the string of socially conscious hits she’s released in the past year, which includes the Golden Globe-nominated “Fight For You” from the Judas And The Black Messiah soundtrack and the Grammy-winning “I Can’t Breathe,” released in response to the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin.
We The People, streaming July 4, is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and aims to inspire viewers to become more engaged with their community and government. A description from Netflix reads:
Combining music and animation to educate a new generation of young Americans about the power of the people, We the People is a series of 10 animated music videos that covers a range of basic U.S. civics lessons in not-so-basic ways. Set to original songs performed by artists such as H.E.R., Janelle Monáe, Brandi Carlile, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Adam Lambert, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, KYLE, Andra Day, and poet Amanda Gorman, with a groundbreaking mix of animated styles — each episode of We the People is an exuberant call to action for everyone to rethink civics as a living, breathing thing and to reframe their understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world.
Listen to “Change” above. We The People starts streaming 7/4 on Netflix.
Netflix just dropped the first official trailer for We the People, an animated music video series created by Chris Nee and produced through a joint collaboration between Kenya Barris and Barack and Michelle Obama. Featuring a powerhouse set list of musical stars like H.E.R. and Janelle Monáe, the 10 episodes series will feature a collection of music videos that will hopefully inspire viewers to rethink their civic engagement. A “Civics Remix,” as the trailer calls it.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Combining music and animation to educate a new generation of young Americans about the power of the people, We the People is a series of 10 animated music videos that covers a range of basic U.S. civics lessons in not-so-basic ways. Set to original songs performed by artists such as H.E.R., Janelle Monáe, Brandi Carlile, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Adam Lambert, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, KYLE, Andra Day, and poet Amanda Gorman, with a groundbreaking mix of animated styles — each episode of We the People is an exuberant call to action for everyone to rethink civics as a living, breathing thing and to reframe their understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world.
Netflix’s new samurai anime Yasuke premieres at the end of the month but today, the show’s executive producer Flying Lotus released two new songs from its soundtrack, including “Black Gold” featuring fellow anime fan Thundercat. FlyLo also shared “Between Memories” featuring Niki Randa today. You can listen to both via the Spotify embeds below.
YasukeThe Boondocks and another Netflix anime, Cannon Busters. Speaking with Apple Music about the new show, Flying Lotus credited the creation process with helping him get through the pandemic:
Honestly, it kept me sane. It was the best thing I could ask for because I had to be home. If I had touring and stuff, it would have been a little bit funky to really engage with the project like I was able to. I got to just really focus on it and just be a samurai for a while. It was really nice to just have that to run to, this universe, especially when all that Trumpy stuff was going on and things were getting all crazy. I was so glad just to shut that off and get to business. I knew when they were starting to deliver visuals and stuff that it was about to get intense. I was like, “Ah,” and I still had to try to figure out what I wanted it all to sound like. So it was a lot of meditating on the vibe, and I found a lot of parallels between the Yasuke story and being part of this thing. Trying to make music in the Japanese anime system, it’s a different experience than scoring something here in America. It’s just their way of doing things is so different to ours. It took a minute to grow and it took them to be willing to accept us, to work with our schedule, and take on our story as well. So it was a lot of love from both sides really on that.
Listen to “Black Gold” and “Between Memories” above.
There are so many elements about the headline above that make me so happy, but the details behind it (courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter) make me even happier. There is the fact that Netflix has a vampire hunter action thriller coming out called Day Shift, where the main character’s cover is that of a pool cleaner. There is the fact that the pool cleaner is played by Jamie Foxx in full “girl dad” mode. I was already all the way in, but then they went ahead and added Snoop Dogg to it. Give it to me now. Right now.
The film’s the directorial debut for J.J. Perry, a seasoned second-unit director on films like John Wick (yes), The Fate Of The Furious (yes), and Bloodshot (oh no), so we can be reasonably well-assured that the action scenes will be on-point — and really, isn’t that all you want from a Jamie Foxx vampire hunter/pool cleaner flick? The script, written by Tyler Tice, was discovered at a screenplay competition, so it can’t be all bad, and the cast, which includes Dave Franco, Eric Lange, Karla Souza, Meagan Good, and Zion Broadnax, among others, seems strong enough to support the admittedly kinda silly concept.
There are a lot of ways this could go wrong, but I’m choosing to remain positive because if nothing else, there is the possibility of watching Snoop Dogg react to a vampire attack to look forward to, and “Snoop Dogg reacting to things” is a genre with a wealth of fun moments — especially if the things turn out to be supernatural and unusual. Also, Jamie Foxx’s last Netflix action flick Project Power (in which he was again in full “girl dad” mode) was really enjoyable, as is his current ’90s-style sitcom on the platform, Dad Stop Embarrassing Me (do you see the theme developing?).
There’s nothing on when Day Shift will hit streaming, but turnaround on Netflix films is usually pretty quick so expect to see this one out at a theme appropriate time — say, Halloween.
It appears that ASAP Rocky and Nas’ next move will take place on the big screen. The two rappers appeared in a a trailer for the upcoming Netflix film, Monster. In addition to starring in the movie, Nas is also one of its executive producers and in a post to his Instagram page, he revealed Monster would premiere on the streaming platform on May 7.
As for ASAP Rocky, the size of his role in the film is unknown at the moment, but based on the trailer, one could assume he gives a decent contribution to the movie’s entire plot.
Monster is based on Walter Dean Myer’s 1993 novel of the same title. Viewers will follow a 17-year-old honor student from Harlem, Steve Harmon, who is played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Harmon is eventually convicted of murder is left to fight the case with the support of family and friends. Nas plays a prison inmate and Rocky takes on the role of Harmon’s co-defendant, William King. The Monster cast also features Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, John David Washington (who recently appeared in Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie), and more. John Legend also serves as another of the film’s executive producers.
The trailer arrives after Nas’ classic debut album, Illmatic, was recently honored by The Library Of Congress. ASAP Rocky, on the other hand, is slowly returning to the music world as he previewed a bunch of new music as this year’s Yams Day Festival and later dropped his “G-Unit Rice” track.
The tale of Kanye West has taken a bunch of turns over the past couple years, but even before that, his story was one of music’s more fascinating. Now that journey will reportedly be chronicled in a new documentary series that is coming to Netflix.
According to Billboard, Netflix reportedly acquired the currently untitled project from TIME Studios and Coodie & Chike (the duo of Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah) for $30 million, and it is apparently set to debut on Netflix later in 2021.
Coodie & Chike directed two early West videos, for “Through The Wire” and “Jesus Walks,” and have since made some notable documentaries. Those include the 30 For 30 film Benji (a 2012 documentary about the death of promising basketball player Ben Wilson) and the 2019 Netflix documentary A Kid From Coney Island (about former NBA star Stephon Marbury). The duo has apparently been filming West since the ’90s, meaning the duo is working with plenty of footage from the past two decades.
The film will reportedly use previously unseen footage and home videos and will “deal with the death of West’s mother, Donda West, and the impact it had on the rapper; his personal evolution in recent years; his successful move into fashion design and his unsuccessful run for President in 2020.” West is not involved in the production in a creative capacity.
For three years, Flying Lotus has been hard at work as part of the team creating the upcoming Netflix anime series Yasuke. It’s lead is voiced by LaKeith Stanfield and follows the story of a Black samurai in war-torn feudal Japan who returns to service to protect a young girl from dark forces. The show is expected to be released at the end of April, and Flying Lotus has just shared a teaser.
Flying Lotus, who scored the entirety of the series, posted the first images from Yasuke to social media. “Proud to share these first images,” he wrote. “3 years in the making and we are finally here… Honor has a new name.”
The musician also revealed how much he’s enjoyed working on the project. “Working on anime is my new favorite thing,” he wrote. “I think imma try n stay a while. Can happily keep doin it. Makes sense to me.”
Working on anime is my new favorite thing. I think imma try n stay a while. Can happily keep doin it. Makes sense to me.
LeSean Thomas, executive producer and creator of Yasuke, described why the story line piqued his attention in a blog post for Netflix:
“There is a serendipitous nature about this project, how an African-American man goes to Japan to live and work amongst the very best in Japanese anime to create an anime about an African who goes to Japan to live amongst the Japanese elite and become a warrior. Yasuke is a fascinating, mysterious figure in Japanese history that’s drawn a growing interest in today’s media over the decades. I first learned of Yasuke’s role in Japanese history over a decade or so. The children’s book, Kuro-suke by Kurusu Yoshio, featured images that piqued my curiosity. To eventually learn that he wasn’t just a fictional character, but a real person, was exciting material for an adventure story.”
Check out some screengrabs from Netflix’s Yasuke above.
Streaming video is the best thing that’s ever happened to documentaries. People who would never have paid for a ticket to a theatrical nonfiction film are now, thanks to Netflix’s robust selection, scarfing down the stuff by the barrel. But where to start among the masses? Here are 25 of the best documentaries on Netflix right now to get you going, covering a variety of themes and real stories.
Even if you’ve already witnessed the madness of this real-life horror story over on Hulu, you should see it again on Netflix. Hulu’s Fyre Fraud feels like more of a thinkpiece directed at the millennials who were suckered into buying tickets to a luxurious music fest on a secluded island in the Bahamas. Netflix’s Fyre does a better job of placing you in the action, giving you a real feel for the chaos and an understanding of how so many people could’ve been roped into this doomed venture.
Beyoncé’s history-making Coachella performance was enough to temporarily rename the music festival Beychella last year, and now fans who couldn’t afford to see Queen Bee perform live get a backstage pass to the show with this doc. Are there killer performances, musical mash-ups, and dance routines? Sure. But what really makes this music doc stand-out besides the talent of its star is the intimate look fans are given into Beyoncé’s personal life, from her surprise pregnancy to her struggle to get in shape before the event and all the in-between madness and heartbreak.
To understand the enigma that was the Trump campaign, one must first understand the man behind the historic presidential run. Roger Stone is a well-connected lobbyist, a Republican political trickster responsible for the campaigns of former presidents like Richard Nixon and Ronal Reagan. He’s well-versed in navigating morally-murky waters to help his horse win the race, and we see him do just that in this doc, which follows the mogul over a five-year period as he crafts Trump’s winning-campaign.
One of the strangest, most tragic sports stories in history is that of professional wrestler Dave Schulz and his friend, John du Pont. Du Pont was heir to the multi-million dollar Du Pont family fortune and used his inheritance to fund a professional wrestling team with the hopes of competing in the Olympics and other prestigious sports events. Mark Schulz was a wrestler struggling to get out of the shadow of his older brother’s more promising career. The two were roped into du Pont’s scheme, training wrestlers for him, but the partnership quickly soured and led to du Pont murdering Dave Schultz before barricading himself in his family compound to avoid arrest. It’s chilling, bizarre, and all the more riveting because of it.
Another sports doc, this one about a rag-tag group of baseball players in Oregon, feels decidedly more fun than its wrestling counterpart. The doc follows the Portland Mavericks, a defunct minor league baseball owned by actor Bing Russell that played for five seasons in the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. Kurt Russell, Bing’s son, also played on the team and served as its vice president. The film charts the Maverick’s origins, from underdogs to anti-establishment heroes.
Compiled from rare home videos from Christopher “Biggie” Wallace’s best friend, Damion “D-Roc” Butler, this revealing doc gives fans a different look at the iconic rapper. Sean “Diddy” Combs and Biggie’s mom also give interviews, detailing parts of Biggie’s life we didn’t know about, but the most compelling footage comes from D-Roc’s amateur videos. These clips give us an unfiltered look at a man who would become a legend.
This 2016 documentary from Ava DuVernay won an Emmy and was nominated for an Oscar during awards season two years ago. The film chronicles the justice system’s abuses against black people, making a case for institutionalized racism being a problem in America that’s only emboldened by the prison cycle. DuVernay boldly explores how prisons and detention centers are making a profit off of free prison labor, most of it done by black men which begs the question, is slavery really dead?
Let’s be honest, Taylor Swift could’ve delivered a glossy, stylized, superficial doc about her life to promote her latest album, and her rabid fanbase would’ve eaten it up. Instead, the pop star took a risk and gave filmmakers no-holds-barred access to her personal and professional life, offering up intimate interviews with herself and her family, detailing difficult struggles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, allowing cameras inside her sexual assault trial, revealing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and unearthing home video footage of her youth to create a fuller picture of herself. It’s a film that reveals the human underneath the icon. It’s bold, brutally honest, and some of Swift’s best work yet.
Few environmental warrior films do more for the cause than Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral. The doc rounds up a team of scientists, photographers, and divers from around the world to draw attention to an environmental crisis we’ve never seen before — the vanishing of the world’s coral reefs. It works on two levels: By giving us an underwater adventure that attempts to shed light on the mysteries of the deep and highlighting a problem we can see with our own eyes. There’s no denying this one, no looking away, and Orlowski’s crew takes full advantage of that.
’90s crime nostalgia is alive and well in this pseudo-doc from director Kitty Green. Everyone knows how tiny pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey died — bludgeoned to death in the basement of her family home — so Green is less interested in rehashing the investigation into the little girl’s death and more interested in reenacting her life and final moments. To do this, she enlists actors from the area where the family lived, all hoping to play JonBenet or her parents in an upcoming production. Over the course of the film, these thespians are forced to confront the reality of the Ramsey family’s situation which in turn helps viewers to take a look under the surface of this tabloid trauma.
This timely doc gives us a look at the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that rocked the world of gymnastics just two years ago from the point of view of reporters at the Indianapolis Star in charge of exposing it. A cover-up spanning two decades and involving higher-ups at both US Gymnastics and Michigan State where Nassar served as a physician and professor, this revealing investigation into a sinister culture that’s hidden behind the success of its top female athletes makes you rethink everything you thought about the Olympic dream.
his marks the first documentary to come from Netflix’s high-profile producing deal with Barack and Michelle Obama. The film takes a hard look at what happened to a General Motors plant in Ohio when it was closed down during the 2008 financial crisis, causing 2,000 workers to lose their jobs and destroying the small town of Moraine, Ohio. Things only get more complicated when a Chinese billionaire comes to town to transform the plant into a glass-making facility, promising thousands of new jobs before cultural divides threaten to derail the whole thing. It’s a fascinating view of consumerism, the American workforce, culture clashes, and how people can connect with each other despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
In 1992, Sandi Tan, along with her friends, made Singapore’s first indie film. She wrote and starred in it, a project called Shirkers, her two girlfriends produced and edited it, and a man named George Cardona directed. Cardona vanished one day, taking all the film materials with him, and propelling Tan on a decades-long journey to find the truth. It’s an engrossing study in betrayal and the dangers of collaboration, and it works mostly because Tan approaches it from a true-crime mystery angle, stripping it of any nostalgia that might tint her lense.
This gripping documentary confronts some hard truths about religion: its power to unite and its power to divide. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follow three members of New York’s notoriously insular Hasidic community as they try to break free from their religion while holding onto their families and sense of belonging.
Bryan Fogel’s Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus wasn’t supposed to involve Russians and doping scandal and cover-ups. Fortunately for Fogel, when the filmmaker decided to test his mettle by competing in one of the toughest cycling competitions in the world and chose to dope to help his chances, he ended up meeting Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory. The result is this nearly 90-minute film that chronicles Russia’s extensive history with doping and Rodchenkov’s fight for his life after he blows the whistle on the country’s bad practices.
It seems as though we’re all now more aware than ever of how utterly screwed any of us can be in an instant if the system places us in its crosshairs for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not behaving in a way perceived to be “normal” in the immediate aftermath. Recent true crime documentaries like The Staircase, Making a Murderer and Serial have certainly played a part in illuminating this frightening and unfortunate slice of reality. We can now add Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn’s Amanda Knox to that list. Prepare to be terrified and infuriated as the filmmakers detail how an overzealous Italian prosecutor and a global tabloid press thirsty for a sensational story joined forces to wreck a young woman’s life, largely for their own benefit. As Daily Mail journalist Nick Pisa freely admits on camera — without any trace of remorse or shame — about his work covering the case, “A murder always gets people going… And we have here this beautiful, picturesque hilltop town in the middle of Italy. It was a particularly gruesome murder; throat slit, semi-naked, blood everywhere. I mean, what more do you want in a story?”
Netflix delivers another worthy installment in the true crime series with this truly bizarre tale of a naive, church-going family and the man who preyed upon them. The Brobergs lived in a small town in Idaho with their three young daughters when they met Robert Berchtold, a seemingly-nice family man who doted on the girls, in particular, a 12-year-old Jan Broberg. Over time, Berchtold began grooming Jan and manipulating her parents, engaging in sexual acts with both her father and mother to cause a rift in the family before kidnapping her and brainwashing her into compliance. This saga went on for years and as strange as it sounds, nothing can prepare you for hearing the first-hand account of how this sociopath destroyed this loving family.
This documentary features never-before-seen footage of Jim Carrey in character as Andy Kaufman on the set of his 1999 film Man on the Moon. Directed by Chris Smith, the film shows Carrey, who was a celebrated comedic actor at the time, going method for his dramatic role as the brilliant on-stage comedian. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes drama on this one, including Carrey’s backstage antics while shooting the movie, but what’s really interesting about the film is watching the actor’s thorough process and how he’s approached his colorful careers.
We live in a world connected with most of our interactions happening online. It’s great but, as this doc shows, it’s also terrifying. Terrifying because the way our data changes hands so quickly and indiscriminately — as long as companies shell out the cash for it — skirts all kinds of privacy laws and moral boundaries. This doc, told from the perspective of a journalist attempting to get his search data, the enormous fight with big tech to do it, and how his journey connects to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that may have influenced multiple elections in the States and abroad, is full of fascinating information and shocking tell-alls that could bring this whole internet empire down if people finally decide to start listening.
This political doc made its way from Sundance to Netflix and we couldn’t think of a better time to watch it than leading up to the 2020 election. It follows the grassroots campaign of the right’s favorite punching bag, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, showcasing her charisma and approachability while also diving into more intimate parts of her life, like her relationship with her late father. It’s a feel-good story from Capitol Hill and really, we need more of that.
The film that turned the tide of public opinion on Sea World and convinced Pixar to change the ending of Finding Dory, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s animal rights muckraker is more than just 83 minutes of theme=park shaming. In telling the story of Tillikum, the psychologically damaged orca who spent his life in captivity and was involved in the deaths of three people, the movie is an elegy for the freedoms that marine creatures like him were once able to enjoy. Is there an ethical way to view creatures like Tillikum up close and personal, and if so, should we trust a private company to deliver it to us?
Clocking in at 24 minutes, the Oscar-nominated Extremis really would only work as a short, as its subject matter is almost unbearably heavy. Following terminal patients, their families, and their doctors, the tearjerker zeros in on the decision that many people are forced to make: whether to end a life or keep struggling to hold on. Netflix’s first foray into short documentary, it’s raw insight that can be rough for anyone who has been in similar shoes or spent any time facing dire choices in a hospital.
The alternately revolutionary and dispiriting saga of a combative, unapologetic and astoundingly gifted soul singer, Liz Garbus’s doc is a powerful rendering of the struggles Nina Simone faced throughout her career: the ways she became trapped in downward spirals, first of spousal abuse and then of bipolar disorder; and of her desperate, all-consuming urge to affect change on the country during the Civil Rights era. What happened? Watch for yourself.
We’re not sure why watching human beings dangling thousands of feet in the air with no safety net or cable cord to tether them to Earth is so irresistible, but it is, and this doc about free climber Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson might be Netflix’s most bingeable adventure flick. The two men attempt to scale the impossible 3000ft Dawn Wall of El Capitan, the Everest for free climbers, and if you can stomach over an hour of near-fatal slips, trips, and falls, this is the doc for you.
Warning: Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge will seriously piss you off. It might also make you swear off doctors for the rest of your life. The film is a deep dive into the medical device industry and the dangers that lurk there for unassuming patients. Like the pharmaceutical industry, there are few laws regulating the creation and implementation of medical devices — think everything from birth control to orthopedic instruments — and the doc shows how this is negatively affecting millions of Americans every year from the women unknowingly sterilized by an IUD device to a doctor whose own ortho-device slowly poisoned him. It’s a frustrating watch, but a necessary one.
April 29th only on Netflix. 
