Producer and founder of the multi-platinum, three-time Grammy winning musical group Black Eyed Peas, Will.i.am, is pairing up with composer Hans Zimmer for his first motion picture soundtrack collaboration for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa’s soundtrack.

Will.i.am performs four new songs on the 17 song album in addition to a new version of Reel to Reel’s 1993 dance hit, I like to Move It, which Sacha Baron Cohen performed in the original Madagascar in 2005. Also, Will.i.am stars as the voice of a new character, an ultra masculine hippo named Moto Moto.

This is the 11th animated film for composer Hans Zimmer. He previously won an Oscar, Golden Globe and Tony Award for The Lion King. He has also received six other nominations for Rain Man, Gladiator, As Good As It Gets, The Preacher’s Wife, Thin Red Line and The Prince of Egypt. Zimmer has scored 100 films including The Dark Knight and Kung Fu Panda.

The story opens where the first movie left off, with the Central Park Zoo animals trying to escape Madagascar by repairing an old worn-out plane, but the plane fails and crashes in Africa; where their adventure begins.   

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa includes all the original crew: Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer), the ring tailed lemurs’ King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), his assistant Aye-aye (Cedric the Entertainer), Mort the lemur (Andy Richter) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith). Along with Will.i.am, other new voices include Alec Baldwin, The View’s Sherri Shepherd, and the late Bernie Mac. 

The album is scheduled to be released on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4,  and the highly anticipated sequel to Dreamworks’ very successful Madagascar, which grossed over $500 million, will debut nationwide on Friday, November 7.

-Jessica Delli Santi