When “P-Valley” debuted on Starz in July 2020, it was instantly clear that Katori Hall’s strip club-set drama was offering something we had never seen on television before. The deeply nuanced portrayals of sex work and intricately choreographed pole dancing sequences earned rave reviews for the series, but few elements were discussed more than the music. The addictive soundtrack was filled with Southern hip-hop and trap music that underscored the show’s poetic writing with endlessly catchy earworms and provided dancers with a perfect canvas for their art form.
When it was time to begin selecting music for Season 2, the team was overwhelmed with artists asking to have their songs featured. But rather than use the show’s newfound prestige as an excuse to be more exclusive, they decided to cast a wider net. Appearing on a panel at IndieWire’s Consider This Event in Los Angeles June 3, alongside actors Nicco Annan, Brandee Evans, and J. Alphonse Nicholson, “P-Valley” music supervisor Sarah Bromberg acknowledged that the massive influx of interest in her show came with challenges. But Hall’s commitment to inclusivity and authenticity ensured that they never stopped looking for ways to include artists who accurately reflect the communities that the show portrays.
“I get asked all the time, when people find out I work for ‘P-Valley,’ ‘Oh, I have the perfect song for you, let me send it to you,’” Bromberg said. “I get random emails all the time in my inbox.”
But the unsolicited music submissions that the show receives pale in comparison to the steps that Hall and Bromberg took to ensure that Mississippi artists had official channels to have their music considered for the show.
“One thing that Katori did that was so amazing for Season 2 was she actually put a call out to Mississippi and Southern artists to submit their music,” she said. “Because she got some feedback in the first season that there was some upcoming artists that weren’t included from the area, and she took that to heart. She actually made it available for everyone to submit their music. And I’m telling you, we went through every single song that was submitted and many of them actually ended up in Season 2.”
While the trap songs might be the most memorable part of the soundtrack, the cast made it clear that the show succeeds because the music department balances it out with other genres. Nicco Annan, who plays The Pynk owner Uncle Clifford on the show, pointed out that the entire soundtrack tells a story that can stand on its own.
“People a lot of times come to this show thinking that they have to have trap music, or they have to have a certain club banger. But then they actually watch this show and they’re listening to Valerie June, so something very folky and bluesy. Because that is also the sound of the South,” Annan said. “And I think people realize that all kinds of music exist, and all kinds of genres help to tell the story. You can listen to the soundtrack of the show and actually get a musical. You can get the storylines of all the characters and the internal monologues, and I think that’s really cool.”
Of course, the prevalence of great songs on “P-Valley” only makes it more noticeable when the show opts to turn the music off. In one memorable scene from Season 2, the music cuts out while Brandee Evans’ Mercedes is in the middle of a dance. Evans praised the creative decision, explaining that it allowed audiences to take note of the unpleasant realities that music sometimes masks.
“When you go to any club and you see people dancing, you don’t hear the grunts or the knees cracking. The hands, the scars that are still on my legs today,” Evans said. “The true things that are really happening, and I believe we show that on P-Valley. Kudos to Katori for making you listen.”
As fun as it can be to talk about music, the cast emphasized that all of the audio choices are made in service of the larger story. J. Alphonse Nicholson, who plays rapper Lil Murda on the show, explained that using music and drama to authentically represent Southern strip club culture on the show is its own reward.
“It’s just amazing to be able to be on this screen and to see you all enjoy what some people have never experienced a day in their life,” Nicholson said. “Some people have never been in a strip club, some people have never been to Mississippi, but now you get a very authentic description of what that is on this screen.”
Nicholson had a very direct experience with a local musician too.
“There’s a quick story about Katori just trusting the locals. One of the guys that creates music for Lil Murda, his name is Antoine, but we call him New Money,” Nicholson said. “He was a chef on ‘P-Valley,’ a caterer. He was a crew member. He stopped me while I was walking and he said ‘Hey, Alphonse, I’m a rapper and I want to write for Lil Murda. I said ‘Bro, rap for me, I’m gonna take a video and send it to Katori.’ So I recorded a video of this kid that was just a chef at the time. She loves it, she takes him off the chef line and puts him in the writers room, and now he’s a writer for Lil Murda.”
Watch the complete panel from IndieWire’s Consider This Event above.
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