Kendrick Lamar and SZA Celebrate Africa In ‘Black Panther’ Music Video for ‘All the Stars’

Kendrick Lamar and SZA Celebrate Africa In 'Black Panther' Music Video for 'All the Stars'

Kendrick Lamar sails across a sea of people while SZA dances among the stars in powerful and visually stunning tribute to the film.

The first full-length video for "Black Panther" is out, but it's not the movie. Kendrick Lamar and SZA dropped the bright and colorful music video for the track "All the Stars," which appears on the "Black Panther" soundtrack, out Friday.

Rather than go the standard route of filling the video with clips from the highly anticipated Marvel film, Lamar and SZA instead opted to create stunningly gorgeous visuals filled with ornate costuming and beautiful background settings. The epic feel of the video kicked off right away with Lamar crossing a literal ocean of arms on a boat to meet SZA's larger-than-life royalty.

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Through much of the video, SZA gets to perform the chorus amid a field of stars and galaxies cascading all around her. The effect is powerful, creating a dream-like quality full of stars because, y'know, it's "All the Stars." We counted, it looks like they're all there.

Lamar got one verse in the video, and he made the most of it, surrounded by traditional African dancers as he raps about the entitlement of the one percent. Other sequences include him being followed through a stripped forest by a pack of black panthers, and approaching four towering African queens.

SZA alternates between the colorful streets of an African village to monochromatic vistas of blue and gold, as her costuming reflects the environs she finds herself in. At the close of the video, the camera zooms in on a side angle of her hair, styled in the shape of Africa.

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Like the film it's based on, the video is unapologetically African, representing the culture, rhythm and beauty of that oft-misunderstood continent flawlessly. And while it doesn't offer any clips from the movie, it still does its job of evoking the spirit of the film and continuing to raise anticipation in moviegoers to see the film, and snatch a copy of that soundtrack, curated by Kendrick Lamar.

The "Black Panther" soundtrack drops Feb. 9, followed by the film a week later on Feb. 16.