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The Next Best Picture Podcast

Interview With "Highest 2 Lowest" Composer Howard Drossin & Songwriter Aiyana-Lee

The Next Best Picture Podcast

The Next Best Picture Podcast

Tv & Film

4.2542 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Highest 2 Lowest" is an American crime thriller film directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay by Alan Fox. It is an English-language remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 Japanese film "High and Low," itself based on Ed McBain's 1959 novel "King's Ransom." The film stars Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, John Douglas Thompson, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Princess Nokia, and Ice Spice (in her film debut). The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival out of competition, where it received positive reviews for its performances, music, and direction from Lee. Composer Howard Drossin and songwriter/performer Aiyana-Lee, who collaborated on the film's title track, were both kind enough to spend some time talking with us about their work and experiences working on the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now available to stream on Apple TV+. Thank you, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to The Next Best Picture podcast, and this is Daniel Howitt's interview with the composer for the film highest to lowest Howard Drozzen and the film songwriter, Aionalee.

0:12.2

New mixes of mood music. I need a theme.

0:14.6

Theme music.

0:16.8

Hey!

0:18.0

Wake up, y'all. The king's here.

0:19.4

We've got to pay back. Buying back stacking his records.

0:22.6

It's a lot of money.

0:23.6

There's more to life than just making money.

0:26.6

It's integrity.

0:28.6

That's what you stand for.

0:30.6

What you think?

0:31.6

I think you gotta be a little crazy sometimes in this world to get what you want.

0:34.6

King David, now ain't this son. I got your full attention now, huh? You finally listening to me. Somebody's got Trey. What do you mean somebody's got? Somebody's kidnapped our son. $17.5 million in the old black joint backpack. Try me if you think I'm playing. I ain't got it. and Ianna. My name is Daniel. I'm the Next Best Picture. It is such a pleasure to talk with you about the music of highest to lowest. There is so much to talk about because the music of this movie is so integral to the story, so I can't wait to dive in with you both. I figured the best place to start is the song.

1:11.2

I want to start with talking about the song highest to lowest.

1:14.9

I know you don't enter the film until the very end, but your performance really sends the

1:21.2

audience out on a high with your incredible song.

1:24.0

Tell me about the moment.

1:26.2

How did this come to be?

1:27.4

How did you get connected to

1:28.5

Spike? It's a unreal story. But he, he DM me on Instagram. He discovered me on

1:37.1

Instagram, which is mind-blowing. Don't know how that happened. Don't know how the algorithm

1:42.8

somehow put me on this page. But I had written this song in my room called My Idols Lie to Me, and it went very viral. And he reached out on Instagram. He's like, this is the real Spike Lee. I'm like thinking it's a fake account with a little checkmark. I'm like, no, no, no, that cannot be the legend himself, Spike Lee.

...

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