Before famed poet Maya Angelou's death in May, she was working on a rather unique music project involving some of her most cherished work. The 86-year-old author had teamed up with producers Shawn Rivera and RoccStar to create "Caged Bird Songs," a collection of her poems synced with music beats.
The album, which was released in November, was designed to help reach a younger generation.
"This project is important," Angelou told Rolling Stone before her death. "It's woven into the tapestry of our lives, and we're being serious and giving and kind about it. So obviously, it's going somewhere. And we have to release it to go there."
Not only did Angelou and her estate rework her poems into catchy tunes, but it recruited two-time Emmy award-winning choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon D'Umo (also known as NappyTabs) to create a funky, new dance. The duo, married 16 years, put their talents together to create a hip-hop line dance to Angelou's "Harlem Hopscotch."
"Maya Angelou's estate came to us, and she had put together some of her poetry with a hip hop producer as a way to reach the new generation," Napoleon told HNGN.com in an exclusive interview. "She said this whole rap thing is kind of like what she was doing with music and poetry in the 1950s and 1960s."
"Maya and the producer put some beats behind her voice reading the 'Harlem Hopscotch', a poem she wrote in 1969, and we created a hip hop line dance and directed a dance video to go with the music,'" he continued.
Napoleon said the process to create the dance didn't take them very long but they wanted to make sure that it was easy enough for anybody - no matter their dance level - to do. Once the choreography was finished, Tabitha and Napoleon recruited a few celebrities and fellow dancers to help them perform the routine for a video. The choreographers filmed the music video in Harlem and at different locations in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday Dec. 23, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) released the video which featured cameos by "Pretty Little Liars" star Nia Peeples, "Dancing with the Stars" pros Derek Hough and Witney Carson and Season 19 winner Alfonso Ribeiro. Actress/dancer Zendaya Coleman was also seen getting down to the song, along with choreographer Ian Eastwood and dancers from "So You Think You Can Dance" and "America's Best Dance Crew."
"We are thrilled and honored to be a part of Maya Angelou's legacy," Tabitha said. "We know she is Hopscotching up in Heaven watching the world learn this dance and relive this great poem."
"Harlem Hopscotch" is the lead single from Angelou's "Caged Bird Songs." The 13-track album (named after her 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) also includes "Pow Pow," "Still I Rise," One More Round" and "Come and Be My Baby."
