One of the biggest highlights of Luke Cage is the music. Some of the jams played in Cottonmouth's club are just absolutely brilliant. Extra points in that the artists themselves performed live exclusively for the show.
- Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's score
has won significant praise, many feeling this is the best MCU soundtrack/score since Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). The series' main theme is likely one of the most memorable instrumental pieces composed for the MCU. - The jewel in the crown is Method Man's "Bulletproof Love", an awesome Hip-Hop song that references the main MCU heroes like Captain America and Iron Man.
- "Manifest" alone had several examples:
- Nina Simone's "Plain Gold Ring" is a hauntingly beautiful song that plays while Luke disrupts Zip's attempts to sell weapons and Misty watches Cottonmouth leave the 29th Precinct a free man.
- Nathan Bartells' "Top Going Down, Bottom Going Up" is a pretty chill jazz theme that plays when Luke talks to Bobby and Claire at the barber shop.
- John Lee Hooker's "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" is a gangsta-esque Blues theme that plays during the flashback where Mama Mabel talks to Pistol Pete having discovered his betrayal and arranged for his execution through a young Cottonmouth
- Adrian Younge's "April Sonata" plays while Mariah and Cornell fight. It's a tragic, yet pumping theme for the duel which encapsulates their feelings and willingness to win.
- Nina Simone's "Plain Gold Ring"
- "100 Days, 100 Nights" by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings is so soulful it hurts.
- "King's Paradise", which plays during the final scene of Season 2, is a ballad to Harlem and Luke Cage (with elements of the series' theme song in it), and an excellent way to cap off the extremely emotional Season 2 journey and ultimate resolution.
- Charles Bradley's "Ain't it a Sin" is not only very funky and suited to the show, it's a great backdrop to the scene of Luke Cage striking against Cottomouth's operations.
