{"id":1889,"date":"2026-03-03T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/sinners-i-lied-to-you-is-set-to-make-black-history\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:19:07","slug":"sinners-i-lied-to-you-is-set-to-make-black-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/sinners-i-lied-to-you-is-set-to-make-black-history\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sinners\u2019 \u2019 I Lied To You\u2019 Is Set To Make Black History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With an Academy Award for Best Original Song hanging in the balance, Grammy Award-winning musician Raphael Saadiq <\/a>has plenty to talk about\u2014and even more to be grateful for.<\/p>\n

\"US-ENTERTAINMENT-OSCARS-NOMINEES\"
Source: MICHAEL TRAN \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the former Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9! frontman\u2019s claims that \u201cIt Never Rains in Southern California,\u201d on an uncharacteristically dreary morning, the clouds bearing down on Los Angeles are doing exactly that. Undeterred, he offers a mea culpa: <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt doesn\u2019t rain, it like\u2014storms here. Lucky I wore some boots though.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If his calm demeanor in the midst of chaos comes as a surprise, it shouldn\u2019t. With Ryan Coogler\u2019s Sinners <\/em>taking Hollywood by\u2014well\u2014storm <\/em>during awards season, Saadiq\u2019s lone contribution to its soundtrack, the spellbinding \u201cI Lied to You,\u201d is up against Diane Warren, KPop Demon Hunters, and others vying for Best Original Song at the upcoming 98th Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

\"98th
Source: Monica Schipper \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the type of sonic immortality that, after nearly 40 years in this business, honestly feels inevitable.<\/p>\n

So, in between flash flood warnings and accolades for his executive production work on Brent Faiyaz\u2019s latest album, Saadiq and I discussed all things Sinners<\/em>, the tragic loss of his \u201cbrother\u201d D\u2019Angelo<\/a>, and how his grandmother instilled in him the importance of Black History Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jay Connor:<\/strong> Sinners<\/em> is easily one of the most culturally profound movies in recent memory\u2014if not ever. How did you become involved in such an impactful project?<\/p>\n

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Raphael Saadiq:<\/strong> I got a phone call from Ryan Coogler. We\u2019re both from the Bay Area, both born and raised in Oakland. We never met in person, but we knew of each other. I also got a call from [Grammy Award-winning composer] Ludwig G\u00f6ransson, who scored the movie. They invited me over and gave me a rundown.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Connor<\/strong>: Ludwig is a beast.<\/p>\n

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Yeah, he\u2019s a beast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Connor:<\/strong> He\u2019s no joke. And with him using blues as the lifeblood of this soundtrack, what was the creative process like with \u201cI Lied to You\u201d?<\/p>\n

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I spoke to Ryan [Coogler] on FaceTime as he was getting ready to start shooting. He told me the history of his uncle, who was really into blues. His uncle gave him the history of the relationship between the blues and church, and the complications that blues players faced: that if you played the blues, you were going to hell. So there was this tug-of-war between church and the blues. I knew that story all too well, growing up in Oakland around a lot of Pentecostal, Church of God in Christ\u2014people like Sly of Sly and the Family Stone. His dad, Sylvestor Sr., was a pastor. He would come to our church and preach sometimes. He\u2019d see us playing music, and he\u2019d look at us like, \u201cDon\u2019t get out there in the world and get turned out.\u201d So I lived Preacher Boy\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Connor:<\/strong> Oh, wow.<\/p>\n

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So once Ryan gave me his uncle\u2019s interpretation of that, we got off the phone, and Ludwig and I grabbed our guitars and jammed for an hour. We came up with the main guitar licks, then off the top of my head, I just started singing the lyrics. It just sort of came out.<\/p>\n

The way Ryan explained what he wanted to me, it made me think about blues musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin\u2019 Wolf<\/a>\u2014just to name a few. That\u2019s what I was pulling from. That was my inspiration. And I guess the ancestors came down because it fit the film so perfectly. Just that lyric, \u201cI lied to you.\u201d I don\u2019t even know why I said it, but it matched the film. It had to be something spiritual that happened, because the kid who was singing it, Miles Caton, he has this big voice\u2014<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Connor: <\/strong>Yeah, his voice is crazy. He sounds like a grown-a** man.<\/p>\n

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And he\u2019s a young dude! Like 20 years old. I could never sound like that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Connor:<\/strong> He was the missing ingredient that made that song so mesmerizing. Were there any other influences you drew from\u2014aside from Muddy Waters and some of the others you mentioned\u2014in the song\u2019s creation?<\/p>\n

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And he\u2019s a young dude! Like 20 years old. I could never sound like that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The post \u2018Sinners\u2019 \u2019 I Lied To You\u2019 Is Set To Make Black History<\/a> appeared first on Bossip<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With an Academy Award for Best Original Song hanging in the balance, Grammy Award-winning musician Raphael Saadiq has plenty to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14044,"featured_media":1910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-1889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-rss","tag-culture","tag-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}