Hear the full version of John Legend's Underground song

Advertisemen ;

Hear the full version of John Legend's Underground song.

After helping produce the first season of WGN's Underground, John Legend is taking on a few more duties in the abolition drama's second season. For one, he'll appear in the show itself as legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass^[1]. But he's also contributed an original song, "In America," to the soundtrack. After previously appearing in Underground's season 2 trailer^[2], "In America" is now available in its entirety.

The trailer had focused on the parts of the song describing the American dream and the idea that anyone can make it "in America" — playing it over scenes of slaves being worked and beaten, to emphasize the hypocrisy. The full version, though, steadily builds from that beginning and eventually reaches a more hopeful chorus that wonders whether "we can build the dream." Fittingly, the cover art depicts the sun peeking out behind the clouds over a tree-lined, could-be-antebellum landscape.

Legend recently discussed^[3] Underground and its music with EW. "It adds urgency," he said. "Sometimes it's hard to convince modern viewers that something that happened 150 years ago is relevant to them. The music helps with bridging that gap in some ways. It was a bit of a risk, because we knew some people would be jarred by the juxtaposition of modern music in a period piece. Most people are used to hearing more classical or roots-y music when they see period pieces, but we wanted to make an explicit choice to be a bit more bold with this series, and I think it's paid off."

The third episode of Underground's second season airs tonight at 10 p.m. on WGN. Listen to "In America" below.

References

1. ^{^} Frederick Douglass (ew.com)
2. ^{^} Underground's season 2 trailer (ew.com)
3. ^{^} discussed (ew.com)

---

Source

Advertisemen