As anyone who has been a devoted viewer of Insecure can tell you, in addition to the city of Los Angeles, the series’ soundtracks are yet another character in the much-beloved show. Fans and followers of Issa Rae’s groundbreaking series have long followed its official playlist on Spotify—which has also often proven a fantastic venue for breaking new artists and singles.
Just ahead of the fifth and final season premiere of Insecure this Sunday, a new playlist has debuted on Spotify celebrating the legacy of the acclaimed series; not only tapping into the nostalgia we have for the cast of characters but for the music that bolstered the beauty of being Black, millennial and figuring it all out in LA. Produced by HBO Max in conjunction with Issa Rae’s Raedio and Pineapple Street Studios, Insecure Interludes features top talent and artists from the show revisiting some of the series’ most iconic tracks and sharing never-before-told stories.
“In Insecure Interludes, creators, artists, and fans reflect on how these songs shaped culture and TV from its launch to today,” reads the playlist’s Spotify page. Per a press release to The Root:
In Interludes, Insecure creator/star Issa Rae, music supervisor Kier Lehman, actor/director Jay Ellis, and featured artists on the series (incl. Cautious Clay, Victoria Monet, Vince Staples, and more) take the listener through the making of the hit series’ most memorable songs, the scoring process, and the cultural impact of Insecure’s music. The last song of the playlist, Nnena’s “Fun,” will also be the first track of Insecure’s final soundtrack, giving listeners an exclusive preview of what’s in store for the fifth season.
“I always used to say early on that this show might be trash, but the music was for sure going to be fire,” says Rae in the playlist’s intro as she explains why she selected Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” as the series’ intro song. In later interludes, Rae shares why her famed “mirror raps” were an organic carryover from her breakthrough webseries Awkward Black Girl to Insecure, and so much more.
For musical artists like Rico Nasty, Insecure provided a breakthrough platform of its own for herself and other female rappers, as she explains in Interludes.
“It was early on in my career, and a lot of people watched the ‘Poppin’ music video, and that was like a huge moment for me,” she shares. “And I think that like for all the girls to come after that were on it, I think that it was a really big moment for them too. So this is also Black history.”
Insecure will no doubt go down in television history as a series that cast an authentic and loving lens on Blackness. To help us begin to say farewell ahead of its final season, Insecure Interludes is available on Spotify now.
Correction: Monday, 10/25/21 at 8:30 a.m., ET: An earlier version of this article credited Spotify as a co-producer in Insecure Interludes. While the playlist lives on Spotify, it is actually is HBO Max production; the article has been corrected to reflect this.