Kendrick Lamar’s “The Blacker the Berry” has entered the world of Bass X Machina, where the track is heard in a reworked form during a train gunfight. The placement brings a song from Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly into the soundscape of the Netflix anime rather than simply dropping the familiar studio recording over an action scene.
Brian Tyree Henry voices Bass Reeves in the series. In the sequence described, Reeves faces down opponents aboard a train and gives them a chance to back away while he reloads. The music starts after his warning: “Anybody wanna reconsider? You got until I finish reloading this gun.” What follows is a remix of “The Blacker the Berry” tailored to the episode’s sound design.
That distinction matters. A song placement can mean an existing recording is used intact, but a remix is a new version of material shaped for a different context. Here, the reported aim is to make the music belong to the episode’s audio environment. The original song remains the recognizable creative foundation, while the revised presentation helps it function inside a specific animated set piece.
A confrontational song in a confrontational scene
“The Blacker the Berry” comes from To Pimp a Butterfly, a 2015 Lamar album. The track has also been performed at the Grammys and holds a prominent place in modern rap discussion. Those facts make it an especially charged choice for a high-pressure confrontation, even before considering the show’s decision to adapt it rather than use it unchanged.
The available description does not spell out the exact musical changes in the remix, nor does it identify who made it. It would be a mistake to assume specific alterations to tempo, lyrics, instrumentation, or vocal treatment without that information. What is clear is narrower and more useful: the version in Bass X Machina was made to sit within the episode’s sound design.
Sound design is the broader construction of an audiovisual work’s sonic world. It can encompass dialogue, ambient noise, effects, music, silence, and the way those pieces are balanced against one another. In a train gunfight, those elements could include the physical setting, weapon sounds, spoken threats, and score or licensed music. Saying the remix fits the sound design does not tell viewers precisely how every element was mixed; it does indicate that the song’s use was treated as part of the scene’s overall dramatic audio, not merely as background decoration.
The timing described for the cue is equally important. The song begins after Reeves delivers his reloading line, putting the music at the hinge between a verbal challenge and imminent action. That is a familiar dramatic structure, but the track selection carries a different kind of weight than an anonymous action cue. A well-known song arrives with memories of its original form and cultural status, while the remix creates a version specific to the series moment.
Why a remix changes the meaning of a music placement
Using a prominent rap track in animation is one choice. Reworking it for the scene is another. The latter can make the song feel less like a detachable soundtrack selection and more like a component of the show’s world.
Related coverage includes Kendrick Lamar’s ‘The Blacker the Berry’ Is Reworked for a ‘Bass X Machina’ Train Gunfight.
- Recognition: Viewers who know “The Blacker the Berry” may immediately recognize its identity, even in an altered arrangement.
- Scene-specific function: A remix can be structured around the pacing and emotional pressure of one sequence rather than preserving the listening experience of an album track in full.
- Audio continuity: Tailoring a song to sound design can help the music coexist with dialogue and action rather than compete with them.
- New framing: The original recording’s legacy remains intact, but the show gives audiences a new dramatic setting in which to encounter its ideas and intensity.
None of that means a remix replaces the original. It is better understood as an adaptation for a new medium and moment. The studio version belongs to Lamar’s album; the version used in Bass X Machina serves a train standoff involving Bass Reeves. The difference is part of the point. The show is borrowing not only name recognition, but also the emotional force viewers may associate with the song.
That makes the scene a useful example of how modern animation can draw from music outside the conventional orchestral-score lane. The report does not establish a larger soundtrack strategy for the series, so there is no basis to claim that Bass X Machina routinely uses remixed rap songs. But this one use shows an interest in making a familiar recording interact directly with the show’s action and mood.
The anime connection runs in both directions
The placement also lands with an interesting bit of context from Lamar’s own creative orbit. Producer Mustard previously recalled asking Lamar about the inspiration behind “Hey Now,” a different song. Mustard said Lamar answered that hearing the beat made him feel like Goku, the central hero of Dragon Ball.
“When I hear certain shit on your beats, it brings out something else in me, so I just did whatever I felt,” Mustard recalled Lamar explaining.
The recollection is not evidence that “The Blacker the Berry” was written with anime in mind, and it should not be stretched into that claim. It does, however, make this new crossover feel like more than a random collision of two pop-cultural spaces. An anime reference has been part of a documented conversation about Lamar’s musical instincts on “Hey Now”; now, a Lamar song has been reshaped for an anime action sequence.
Goku is an especially shorthand-friendly reference because the character evokes escalation, resolve, and explosive action for many audiences. Mustard’s anecdote suggests Lamar used that association as a way of describing an intuitive reaction to a beat. In the Bass X Machina case, the direction reverses: a track by Lamar helps establish the energy of an animated confrontation.
What the scene says—and what it does not
There are several solid takeaways from the reported sequence. Bass X Machina is a Netflix anime featuring Brian Tyree Henry as Bass Reeves. A train gunfight includes a reworked version of “The Blacker the Berry.” The music begins after Reeves issues an ultimatum while reloading, and the remix was designed to fit the episode’s sound design.
There are also important unknowns. No episode number is provided. No release date for the episode is provided. The available information does not identify the remix’s producer, detail the licensing arrangement, or describe whether the altered version will be released separately. It also does not establish how much of the original song is used or whether the series will feature more Lamar music. Keeping those boundaries clear is worthwhile, particularly when short clips can create the impression that every production detail has already been confirmed.
For viewers, the practical implication is simple: this is a scene worth listening to as closely as watching. The central attraction is not just that a celebrated song appears during action; it is that the song is reportedly integrated into the sequence in a customized form. Dialogue, timing, gunfight tension, and music are intended to work together.
It is also another reminder that Netflix projects can share a platform while pursuing very different forms and audiences. The service’s upcoming-film activity includes projects such as Denzel Washington’s The Take, while Bass X Machina uses animation and a remixed hip-hop track to frame its own action. The common distribution home does not make those projects alike; it underscores the range of storytelling spaces available to major performers and recognizable music.
A moment built for both fans and first-time listeners
For longtime Lamar listeners, the appeal is in hearing a pivotal track given a fresh function without losing the significance it has accumulated since To Pimp a Butterfly. For viewers meeting the music through Bass X Machina, the scene offers a direct introduction to its force at a point of maximum drama. And for animation audiences, it demonstrates how an established song can be incorporated as a designed element of a sequence rather than a last-minute add-on.
The result is a compact but notable intersection: a 2015 Lamar track, a Netflix anime, Brian Tyree Henry’s Bass Reeves, and a train standoff built around the tense pause before violence breaks out. The remix is the connective tissue. By adjusting “The Blacker the Berry” for the scene instead of leaving it untouched, Bass X Machina turns a recognizable song into part of its own immediate dramatic language.
