You know, try as I might, there’s nowhere on the internet where IÂ can find the tracks “Jabba Flow” or “Dobra Doompa” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Legally, I mean. It doesn’t look like they’ve been released on any platform. We got to hear such precious little of them when Han Solo, Rey, Finn, and BB-8 go talk to Maz Kanata in her castle’s cantina, and yet we want so much more!
We know they were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the acclaimed and highly talented composer/musician/singer/actor behind the Broadway hits In the Heights and Hamilton, AND J.J. Abrams. We assumed they were sung by Miranda too, though the tracks are credited to “Shag Kava” in the film’s credits.
Well now, Miranda himself has told us how far that musical space collaboration actually went.
It's me AND JJ. https://t.co/rCuJoomokZ
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) February 2, 2016
Yep! The film’s director/co-writer/producer also happened to sing the songs too! Man, now we HAVE to get these tracks and listen carefully. I wanna know how good a singer Abrams is. Was he doing a voice or was he just singing in his own? Is one Shag and the other Kava or are they both together Shag Kava the way those two lip syncing guys from the ’80s were Milli Vanilli without either of them being Milli or Vanilli?
I do hope one day we get to hear the full versions because the island flavor of Shag Kava’s music was very different than any of the other pop-inspired tunes heard in the Star Wars universe up to that point. While most people, including myself, love Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes’ cantina songs from the original film, my favorite is still the now-excluded “Lapti Nek” which was the song by the Max Rebo Band in the theatrical cut of Return of the Jedi. Let’s not let “Jabba Flow” or “Dobra Doomba” meet the same fate, please.
How badly do you want to hear the Miranda/Abrams collaboration in their full MP3 glory? Tell us in the comments below!
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Image: Lucasfilm/Disney
Kyle Anderson is the weekend editor and a film and TV critic for the Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!
