Teyana Taylor’s upcoming album Escape Room is set to play out like a movie. And for this project, she’s lined up a big group of costars.
On Wednesday, August 13, Taylor took to Instagram to unveil the tracklist for Escape Room. The album will contain 22 tracks in total, including several interludes which come in the form of narrations.
Opening the album with the intro track is Taraji P. Henson. Joining Henson to set the scenes of the album are La La Anthony, Jodie Turner-Smith, Regina King, Niecy Nash, Kerry Washington, Issa Rae on two interludes, and Sarah Paulson. Paulson, known for her stints in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story franchise, is set to star with Taylor in the upcoming legal drama All’s Fair — which is also created by Ryan Murphy. Taylor also starred alongside Henson in Tyler Perry’s Straw, which premiered on Netflix back in June.
Contributing to the musical tracks are Lucky Daye, Tyla, Jill Scott, Tasha Smith, and Taylor’s two children — Rue Rose Shumpert and Junie Shumpert — both of whom she shares with ex-husband Iman Shumpert.
Though this is the first time Taylor has revealed all of the details of the album’s features, she spoke to GQ in a June interview, revealing how she went about choosing these collaborators.
“I reached out to a lot of people whose hugs were a little bit longer,” she said. “It was a look [they gave of] ‘I see you. I hear you. I feel you. I got you.’”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Taylor shared that she hopes “to eventually bring an album to Broadway.”
Escape Room will be accompanied by a short film, featuring Taylor playing a woman who recovers from heartbreak and finds love in an unexpected place. Taylor also directed Escape Room’s visuals.
Escape Room is set for release Friday, Aug. 22 via Def Jam.
