The 2023 American sports drama film Creed III, the third in the Creed series and the overall ninth installment in the Rocky franchise, was accompanied by two soundtrack albums. Creed III: The Soundtrack, featuring original songs executive produced by Dreamville, and Creed III: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, featuring an original score composed by Joseph Shirley, were both released on March 3, 2023.^[1]

The original soundtrack includes contributions from Dreamville artists, J. Cole, Bas, Cozz, Omen, Lute, Ari Lennox, JID, and EarthGang.^[2]

In October 2022, it was announced that composer Joseph Shirley would score Creed III. Shirley was previously part of Ludwig Göransson's team scoring the first two films in the series, as a technical score engineer and score programmer. He was also the composer of television series' The Book of Boba Fett, Fairfax, Bad Trip, and The Mysterious Benedict Society.^[3] Shirley spoke on the composition saying:

"The music for Creed III has been a complete joy to create. Working alongside Michael, as director and star in the movie, gave me an exciting perspective into what he wanted to achieve with this score. First, his overall vision for the story as a complete arc; then, a more granular and specific approach – almost as if I were on the film set with him as an actor. I decided to take a more ‘produced’ approach to the score, combining modern production techniques, brash synths, ambient saxophones, and vocal samples with the Los Angeles studio orchestra and choir, who poured themselves into this music. I wanted to build off of Ludwig Göransson’s fantastic contributions to Creed 1 and 2, by introducing new sonic and thematic material to accompany the emotional depth, tension, edginess, futuristic anime influences, and mostly tap into the heart of this movie, while staying true to the Creed legacy, of which I’m honored to now be a part."^[4]

On November 20, 2022, director and actor Michael B. Jordan announced at ComplexCon that J. Cole and Dreamville will be executive producing the original soundtrack.^[5][6]

On February 3, 2023, Dreamville released the first single "Ma Boy" with JID and Lute.^[7] On February 22, the second single "Blood, Sweat & Tears" was released with Bas and Black Sherif featuring Kel-P.^[8]

Sample credits

• "Adonis Interlude (The Montage)" contains a sample of "The Watcher" as performed by Dr. Dre.

Creed III: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the 2023 film Creed III, composed by Joseph Shirley. It was released on March 3, 2023, through Sony Classical Records.