Jay Z to Produce and Perform on "The Great Gatsby" soundtrack

According to a press release reported by Reuters, Jay Z is looking to meld both period and contemporary music with jazz and hip-hop after he was introduced to director Baz Luhrmann by star Leonardo DiCaprio, leading to a two-year collaboration.

"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," Luhrmann said , noting he met Jay-Z as the rapper was recording the Watch the Throne track "No Church in the Wild."

"As soon as I spoke with Baz and Leonardo, I knew this was the right project," added Jay-Z. "The Great Gatsby is that classic American story of one's introduction to extravagance, decadence and illusion."

 Jay-Z is also working with longtime Luhrmann composer and collaborator Craig Armstrong and music supervisor Anton Monsted, and his contributions will be integrated into Armstrong's score. The Great Gatsby, out May 10th, stars DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan.

[Rollingstone]