Pharrell Williams & Kenya Barris Collab On Juneteenth Musical

Pharrell Williams and Kenya Barris are teaming up for a stage musical in honor of Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery. The idea stemmed from a Black-ish episode back in 2017 where The Roots gave viewers a history lesson on slavery.

Although the storyline details are scarce, it is confirmed that Barris will be writing the script alongside Peter Saji, who is also involved in Black-ish as a co-producer. Williams will be in charge of the soundtrack, produced under his i am OTHER company. Barris released a statement on the new project:

“The acknowledgement and celebration of Juneteenth as an American and possibly international holiday is something that I would put in the life goals column for me. For Peter and me to be able to team up with Pharrell on such an important project like this is something that neither of us in a billion years would have thought possible. For us, the project isn’t about numbers; it’s about humanity. Slavery is America’s recessive gene and it’s time we all dealt with it and what better way to have an audience swallow this dose of medicine than with amazing music and raw, honest, jaw dropping comedy?”

As the plot is being worked on, check out the clip from the Black-ish episode below:

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