More Details On Jay-Z’s Involvement With Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby Revealed

15 March 2013 | 12:12 pm | Dan Condon

Luhrmann draws parallels between the jazz age and modern hip hop.

We've known for quite some time now that Jay-Z [Shawn Carter] would be contributing to the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann's long-awaited film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic The Great Gatsby, but overnight far more detail on just what that involvement entails has been revealed.

In an official statement issued overnight Australian time, it was announced that Jay-Z will serve as the soundtrack's Executive Producer and will perform on the record, which is said to feature “a varied collection of the world's most talented and compelling musical artists.” To achieve the “1920s meets now sound” that the statement boasts, composer Craig Armstrong – who has also worked on the soundtracks for Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge in the past.

It was through Leonard DiCaprio, who plays Jay Gatsby in the film, that Luhrmann and Jay-Z met.

“As soon as I spoke with Baz and Leonardo, I knew this was the right project,” Carter said in the statement. “This film`s vision and direction has all the makings of an epic experience.”

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Luhrmann said he was looking to capture the energy that F Scott Fitzgerald managed to in his book, comparing the music of the jazz age to hip hop in the modern day.

“The question for me in approaching Gatsby was how to elicit from our audience the same level of excitement and pop-cultural immediacy toward the world that Fitzgerald did for his audience? And in our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip hop,” he said. “Not only is JAY Z a great artist, full stop, but I had heard that he was a great collaborator.”

The soundtrack will be released through Interscope Records at a still to be decided date. The Great Gatsby screen in Australian cinemas from Thursday 30 May.