The star of Iron Fist, Finn Jones, recently revealed that he created an unusual playlist for himself while on set, one filled with hip-hop legends. This feels appropriate given that Wu-Tang Clan maestro RZA ended up directing an episode of Iron Fist for Netflix.
While characters like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage all share a link through the streets of New York City, growing up either poor or integrated with their respective neighborhoods, Iron Fist’s Danny Rand feels like an outsider. Rand grew up rich as the heir to the Rand Corporation. After a tragedy that leaves Danny orphaned in the hidden Asian village of K’un-Lun where he grew up and learned martial arts, eventually becoming the village’s strongest warrior, the Iron Fist.
However, it seems as though Rand does eventually end up connecting to his future home of New York City through an unlikely source: hip-hop.
“So before I started the role, I actually made a playlist on my iPod of songs that Danny Rand would listen to,” explained Jones. “It’s a lot of kind of ‘90s hip-hop, like De La Soul, Jurassic 5, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan. Like that kind of music is what Danny’s really jamming to, and we feature that in the series.”
However, like Luke Cage — which deftly incorporated music into its story of a street-level hero in Harlem — Iron Fist also plans on incorporating music into its kung fu throwback. “And actually, one of our episodes was directed by the RZA himself. Episode 6. So yeah there’s a very close tie with hip-hop and the Iron Fist series.”
Episode six is titled “Immortal Emerges from Cave”, which doesn’t really give away a lot of details, except that if it’s anything like the RZA’s directorial debut, The Man With the Iron Fists, it should be one wild ride full of hip-hop cues and kung fu homages.
In fact, like Luke Cage’s throwback to the ‘70s, Kung Fu films have a rich relationship with the music of hip-hop, and vice versa. Famously, the Wu-Tang Clan came together after a deep love of kung fu films, and it’s good to see that relationship being fostered in Iron Fist. The shared love of music might even be the impetus to the Power Man and Iron Fist friendship from the comics.
Iron Fist bursts onto Netflix March 17, 2017.
