We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.

Spike Lee’s reputation as a filmmaker precedes him: He’s made some of the most timeless, provocative movies ever, using the big screen to illustrate the Black experience from both a nuanced and a straightforward perspective. He had already crafted multiple cultural classics before earning his first Academy Award for his 2018 film BlacKkKlansman.

But just as important as his skills behind the camera (and his inseparable impact on sneaker culture and New York Knicks fandom) is his musical perspective. As the son of jazz musician William James Edward Lee and a child of hip-hop during its nascent years in New York City, Lee’s love for the craft always oozes through in his films, making moments that are just as memorable for what viewers hear as what they see. He’s been directly connected with some of the most memorable moments in Black music history.

Lee commissioned ’80s rap icons Public Enemy to create the inescapable anthem “Fight The Power,” a song that was born in the film Do The Right Thing but has gone on to become a seminal example of hip-hop’s capabilities as a tool to speak out against systemic oppression; he also enlisted Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Public Enemy to exclusively craft the soundtracks for his films Jungle Fever, Girl 6, and He Got Game, respectively. E.U.’s “Da Butt” from School Daze is another eternal dancefloor filler, and he directed the video for Naughty By Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray,” one of rap’s longest-lasting party starters. He also worked with the legendary Michael Jackson and Prince while they were alive to direct music videos (or, as Lee corrected me in Jackson’s words, “short films”) for them, and has held an annual block party in their honor in his stomping grounds of Brooklyn.

One of his most memorable marriages of music and film is Mo Better Blues, which stars Denzel Washington as a prodigious trumpet player who’s being handled by a financially irresponsible manager (portrayed by Lee himself). His latest joint Highest 2 Lowest, which is now streaming on Apple TV+ after a short theatrical release, reunites the pair for their fifth film together. In a re-imagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High And Low, Washington portrays a hitmaking music executive whose plans to buy back his company are thwarted when he gets an anonymous phone call with news that his teenage son is being held for ransom. Two generations of hip-hop are represented in the film, with A$AP Rocky as a co-star and Ice Spice having a cameo. After this writer embarrassed himself with Spike catching him mid-bite in a bacon, egg and cheese bagel before the interview began, he spoke about the role music has had in his career.

Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

This is one of several films you’ve made that directly relate to music. What made you decide to make the music industry the foundation for this film, and for the main character to be a music executive?

SPIKE LEE: That was in a script that Denzel sent me. Denzel was the one who sent me the script. So in the original, in Kurosawa’s film, [actor] Toshirō Mifune was a shoe executive. This is a Japanese film that came out in 1963, but he’s a great filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa. That was post-war Japan 1963. This is a reinterpretation, not a remake. So you’re gonna have differences.

I didn’t realize that Denzel had sent you the script first.

LEE: The script had been going around. He sent it to me, and he says, “Spike, I got something I want you to read. If you like it, [let me know].” Before I even hung up the phone, I said, I wanna do it. Inside Man was 19 years ago, so it was a big gap there, and Denzel and I didn’t even know it.

Mo Better Blues and Bamboozled, and even this one to a certain extent, are all films that kind of depict music as both an expression of black cultural power and —

LEE: I don’t know if I’d put Bamboozled on that. But Mo Betta Blues and this one, for me, is better. Bamboozled is about the racism at the beginning of cinema; that’s not the focus like it is in Mo Betta Blues and this one.

True, true. But I was kind of getting at, they kind of talk about how music is this commodity that gets consumed and exploited. What is your earliest or most startling memory of feeling that way, like music that was ours was being bastardized and exploited?

LEE: Elvis Presley. You know that line in “Fight The Power,” by Public Enemy. You know the line I’m talking about?

“Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me!”

LEE: [Deepening his voice to imitate Chuck D] “Elvis!” But me, growing up, I was born in ’57 you know, so I wasn’t with “Viva Las Vegas.” [Laughs.] Wasn’t with that.

How do you feel about hip-hop now, in that context?

LEE: Look, there’s good hip-hop and bad hip-hop, like any musical form. This film is not a condemnation of hip-hop at all. Hip-hop is in a lot of my films. Let’s go to He Got Game. He Got Game is two miracle art forms. You have a miracle of classical music, you know, by the great Aaron Copland, and then you’ve got Public Enemy for the songs. People didn’t think that would work, but it works! And there was my deal, Stephen Stills’ song “For What It’s Worth,” I brought it to Chuck. And they used that for the title track, “He Got Game.”

Multiple friends of mine were kind of surprised that you didn’t work with Terrence Blanchard on Highest 2 Lowest. So first of all, what made you roll with Howard Drossin for this one?

LEE: Well, Howard is not a stranger to me all. Mostly all those Terrence Blanchard scores, Howard did the orchestrations for it. I have not just worked with one cinematographer, production designer, one costume designer. So that’s the answer; you switch up sometimes. My father, his last score is Mo Better Blues. And also Terence Blanchard and Branford Marsalis played on the scores of School Daze and She’s Gotta Have It. Yeah, so my father, Terence Blanchard, and then I moved on to Howard Drossin. So you know, it’s just different people. For me, everybody brings something different. So there’s no diss, there’s no diss to Terrance. The same thing wasn’t a diss to my father.

What kind of differences are there between them?

LEE: They’re all great to work with, and they’re all great composers, great musicians. I’m not getting on you, brother, but is this something that’s a lot in this, where people make comparisons. The worst thing is sports with Jordan and LeBron. You know, I’m not into that. I’m not into that. Even though Mike was born in Brooklyn. [Laughs.] But take that out of it! I’m just happy that the people I work with are top of their game. Everybody’s different. Everybody’s different has their strengths, and I’m just blessed to work with these giants.

Let me turn it around on you. What was the surprise to you in the film that you necessarily think about? Because there wasn’t a lot of press about it, we kept it on the low on purpose.

I like the idea of Denzel being like a music exec. I felt like the film was saying things about hip-hop without necessarily focusing on those things about hip-hop; it didn’t feel judgmental about hip-hop, but it still felt like it had something to say.

LEE: I know he’s a music exec and all that. But the stuff he’s talking about is not just music, when he says more than once “all money ain’t good money,” that’s not just talking about music. That’s talking about morals and ethics and the decisions people make. You know, hard decisions. Denzel is such a great actor. I mean, all of his films, but this one — not to single it out, it’s just his latest film — but he gets at that moral dilemma. I think everybody’s sitting in that dark theater, putting themselves in Denzel’s shoes. Yeah, if I was in this situation, am I gonna give up $70.5 million?! [Laughs.] I mean, people have different answers. [Laughs.]

Now, you know, especially if it’s not your son. I know motherfucker be like, “Yo, I don’t know what to tell you.” “I ain’t got like that! That’s not my son, what you want me to do?!” That’s what made the film great, and also the book. Ed McBain was the novelist, the title was called King’s Ransom, and Kurosawa adapted that for his film High And Low, which came out 1963-post war Japan.

Commissioning Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” For Do The Right Thing (1989)

What was your relationship with Public Enemy before that song?

LEE: I knew them. I admired them. Chucky is a big sports fan, so we love the Knicks. And I knew with this film, I needed an anthem, and the rest is history. Herstory. But another thing, though, it’s more than an anthem. It had to be a great song, because every time you see Radio Raheem with his boombox played by the great, great, great Bill Nunn, my Morehouse brother. Him and Sam Jackson were a couple years ahead of me at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia. I don’t know how many times you heard “Fight The Power” in that movie [laughs], but it had to be a great song! You hear it more than once, I think at least it was more than 10 times. And the way that song is weaved, it leads to him coming to Sal’s Famous Pizzeria with Smiley, played by Roger Smith, and Buggin Out, played by Giancarlo Esposito. Sal takes out his Mickey Mantle Louisville Slugger and stops that song. So it’s interwoven. That stuff is interwoven, not a mistake. You had to hear it multiple times in the film to lead up to that point.

So was it as simple as you getting them the script or telling them what they’re telling them the gist of the film, and then they made it after that?

LEE: No, no, no. They did some runs through the song even before they saw the film. And then we finally had a cut to show them, then they made changes.

Appearing In Skyzoo’s “Spike Lee Was My Hero” Video (2012)

I was speaking to Skyzoo about you. He had you in the music video for his song, “Spike Lee Was My Hero.” He said that the same way the city of Baltimore is seen as the main character of The Wire, that he sees jazz is the main character in a lot of your movies.

LEE: Well, I don’t think you have to be an Albert Einstein to say that. My father, Bill Lee, was a great, great musician, composer. So I’m the first born, not a big leap. [Laughs.] My father scored my NYU grad school films, then She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do The Right Thing, and Mo Better Blues.

What was it like growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, when hip-hop was bubbling like that? It feels like you were a central part of it, even if you weren’t an artist.

LEE: I don’t know if I was a central part of it, but I loved it. Still love it. It was just an art form. Now you’re talking about breakdancing, graffiti. I mean, it was all of that. It’s the music. All that came from the Boogie Down Bronx, African Americans, brothers from Jamaica, then the Caribbean and Puerto Ricans, that’s the foundation of hip-hop in the Bronx. That’s where it came from. That’s where it’s born. And it spread all over the world. First it spread to the other boroughs, then it went all over the world.

You use hip-hop in your films a lot, even just in terms of how your characters speak. Like in School Daze, Chi-Raq. What makes the musical numbers the right format for situations like that?

LEE: For me, the script determines where I’m going to use music and what music I’m going to use. It’s the story, and that’s what I feel. As I said before, people thought I was crazy, having classical music from one of the greatest American composers, Aaron Copland from Brooklyn, with Public Enemy. Well, that shit worked! So I know how to use music. Do I use music, do I use cinematography, costume design, production design, sound design — these are all things that are tools for a director to tell the story, simple as that. And unfortunately, a lot of times, directors, or maybe it’s the producers or the studio, they go through the Billboard [charts] and pick the hottest joints and stick them in. But that’s not for me. That’s not what I do.

It’s also the artists I want to work with. You know, at the end of Malcolm X end credits, we had Arrested Development. One of my best uses of a song in the film is Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” That’s also my most successful use of a double dolly shot, and doing the research and talking to people who were around then. More than one person felt that Malcolm knew he was going to his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom that day. And so when I heard that I discussed with my great cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, “How we gonna convey to the audience what he’s thinking?” And up to that point, we were just showing off with the double dolly shot. But, you know, you move the story forward. It’s just showing off. You know, we were not that long out of film school, but at some point before Malcolm X, Ernest and I decided we cannot use a double dolly shot unless it means something, not just showing off. And to date, that’s the best use of it. That came out in ’92, Malcolm X.

One of your signatures is having that double dolly shot.

LEE: The double dolly shot. I didn’t make it up, I did not invent that. But it has become my signature shot. And we do that twice in Highest 2 Lowest.

Do you have a specific mindset when it comes to the music for that shot?

LEE: In this film, we use it twice. Once with music, once with dialog. With music, it was with A$AP Rocky’s song, “Trunks.”

Stevie Wonder’s “Living For The City” Inspiring A Scene In Jungle Fever (1991)

Has a scene ever been born from a song? Where you hear a song and you and you imagine the scene?

LEE: I got one for you. Jungle Fever, Stevie Wonder’s song “Living For The City.” That [album] came out ’73, I was in high school. It’s still my favorite album of all time, and once I became a filmmaker, I knew that one day it’s gonna be a film and a scene, right? Innervisions, “Living For The City.” In that scene, for those who might not be familiar, that’s the scene where Wesley Snipes’ character Flipper is trying to find his crackhead brother, Gator, played by my Morehouse brother Samuel Jackson. Also in that scene is Halle Berry. This is Halle Berry’s first film, Jungle Fever.

Directing For Michael Jackson (1996) And Prince (1991)

Speaking of giants, you’ve directed music videos for two of the —

LEE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re using your wrong term. Okay? Michael Jackson told me, when we were doing “They Don’t Care About Us.” “Spike, these are not music videos. They’re short films.”

You know what, that’s my bad!

LEE: It’s not your bad! I’m just letting you know, I’m putting you on game. It’s what Michael said!

Mike and Prince man. What were they like to work with in that context?

LEE: Mike called me out in blue. I hung up on him like three, four times, because I didn’t believe it was him. And he said, “I got a double album coming out, new songs on one CD, and the other CD is going to be greatest hits.” He came to my house and he gave me the CD to put in the player, and said, “Pick one song.” He played them all. I said, “Mike, this is rough.” He says, “You got to pick one song.” I picked “Stranger In Moscow.” Mike went off! He said, “No, you don’t want that one! The song you want is ‘They Don’t Care About Us.'” I said “Mike, if that’s the song you want me to do, I’ll do it! But you asked me to pick the song!” [Laughs.]

Here’s the thing about Mike, because of Do The Right Thing, he thought automatically I was gonna choose that. But he chose me to do that song because of Do The Right Thing. He was certain I was going to choose that song, and I didn’t. He said, “Nah, you don’t want ‘Stranger In Moscow.’ You want ‘They Don’t Care About Us.’ I said, “Okay, all right, whatever you want.” True story, true story.

And at that time, Paul Simon had an album called The Rhythm Of The Saints. That album used this Brazilian drum group called Olodum. I said, “Mike, we should go to Brazil and have Olodum playing with you live.” He said, “Let’s go.” Just like that. There’s two versions of “They Don’t Care About Us.” This version where it takes place in a jail, and then the one was shot in Brazil. Bahia and Rio.

You also did “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” for Prince.

LEE: So that story, I don’t know. Prince was at the thing, and he didn’t want to do it, so he said, “Look Spike, I’m not in it. Do what you want.”

It sounds like Prince was kind of like, “Just do you.” And Mike was more involved.

LEE: No. Michael trusted me. That’s why he wanted me. He trusted me, believe that. It’s just that in his mind, because of Do The Right Thing, he thought automatically, I would choose “They Don’t Care About Us.” At that time, Do The Right Thing came out in 1989. It’s not like this happened in 1990; I had moved beyond Do The Right Thing.

I feel like it’s one thing to be the director of a film where you’re at a ground level. Is it any different when you’re working with two legends?

LEE: There’s definitely collaboration. I’m trying to think of some other people that have called me. Miles Davis for the Tutu album, that’s what came off the top of my head. There’s a whole lot of other people that call me because they like my work, and I take that as a blessing. Branford Marsalis, I did something for him. I would have to look. But great, great artists. Anita Baker, that song is called, “No One In The World.” Curtis Mayfield, “New World Order.” A whole bunch of people.

You’ve had this annual block party in Brooklyn to honor Michael and Prince.

LEE: This is the first year we didn’t do it in a long time, just because there’s so much happening with the movie, so we could not fit it in this year. Here’s the thing, though, we’ve alternated. Sometimes it’s the Michael Prince Block Party, sometimes it’s the Prince Michael Block Party. Just so the two nations got along. [Laughs.] Here’s the thing, though: The last two songs were always “Purple Rain” and “The Man In The Mirror.” We always end the block parties with those two songs, with the great, great DJ Spinna on the wheels of steel.

What made you decide to throw the first one?

LEE: Where’d you grow up?

I grew up in Michigan.

LEE: All right, that explains the question. Block parties are an integral part of the culture in New York City. When it gets hot, summertime! You know what they say now — when it’s Do The Right Thing hot?! And you open up the — they don’t call them johnny pumps either in Michigan. What do you call them. Fire hydrants? Nah, they’re johnny pumps! Nah, block parties are an integral part of summers in New York City.

When I first moved to Crown Heights around nine years ago, I went to the party and it was an amazing day.

LEE: Was it on Do The Right Thing Way?

I believe so, yeah.

LEE: Yeah, Do The Right Thing Way. For those who don’t know, Do The Right Thing was shot on one block for eight weeks, and several years ago, New York City renamed that one block Do The Right Thing Way. It’s the only film to have a street, avenue, boulevard named after it in the history of New York City.

It was on Do The Right Thing Way, but, man, it stretched so many blocks.

LEE: [Laughs.] It went past the official Do The Right Thing Way!

If you could direct a biopic for any rapper, past and present, who would it be?

LEE: I can answer it better if you say it’s in sports. These are two things I wanted to do. I wrote a feature length script of Jackie Robinson, which was not made. My approach to telling Jackie’s story, the pride of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Dodger, I wanted my script to be about his whole life, and the studio just wanted it to be the year he broke the color barrier in 1947. I gotta give a shout out to Chadwick [Boseman], who did a great, great job. I miss him. Yeah, and I was lucky enough to have him in Da 5 Bloods, and no one knew he was ill. No one knew, cast and crew. And the other figure I’m gonna do one day, God willing, is Joe Lewis, the Brown Bomber.

Oh, man. So you from Detroit?

I’m from Saginaw.

LEE: Close enough! [Boxer] Joe Louis, the brown bomber. So those are it for me. That’s why I switched your question, my brother. Jackie and Joe Louis were more than just sports. That was revolutionary, what they did. And also, people, please don’t take this the wrong way and think that I’m putting down rap, that’s not it at all.

Let me ask you, let me turn it around on you. What’s the favorite biopic rapper film?

Straight Outta Compton was really good. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. All of the actors portrayed their counterparts really well. Especially the actor who played Eazy-E – I felt like I was really watching Eazy himself.

LEE: Yeah, they took care of business with the parts they had to play.

Previously Teased Music-Related Projects

I want to look at some of the other films that you may have announced before, and want to see where they are in progress. First, the musical about Viagra.

LEE: I don’t talk about stuff before it happens. Next.

Okay, what about the School Daze sequel?

LEE: It’s gonna hopefully be a Broadway play, not a movie. So, the day School Daze came out in 1988, the very first day it came out, people were telling me it should be a Broadway play. My wife has told me. We’ve been married 30 years. So, God willing, I’ll get there.

You also had announced an ’80s hip-hop version of Romeo And Juliet in 2019.

LEE: Eh! Didn’t happen.