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T&T rapper K Bishop’s song Shackles and Chains turned up on the critically acclaimed US TV series Underground on March 8.

The show is produced by John Legend and broadcast on WGN America. The song was in the soundtrack of the premier episode of Season Two.

It was one of the first songs produced by the conscious rapper last year on his Freedom album.

Bishop said he was intrigued by the concept of the series.

“The TV show is about the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman and her role in freeing slaves.

“What drew me to it was that these people were trying to escape from the jump, so it wasn’t the typical slave movie. They were basically runaways or trying to run away and so what drew me to the show was seeing that these people were fighting and risking their lives to get free.”

Bishop approached the music supervisor of the series on Twitter, Jonathan Christiansen, in January last year and said he thought his song would fit.

Christiansen said he would get back to him as the first season had already closed and the producers were waiting to find out if there would be a Season Two. Bishop said he heard from Christiansen again in January this year, when the music supervisor said he had a placement for the song in Episode One of Season Two.

Bishop said he was wary of celebrating just yet, as there are many things that have to happen before a song is finally placed. He continued being wary even after a Sony Pictures representative contacted him and he signed a contract, as he said the contract just meant they had the rights to use the song. It wasn’t until Christiansen contacted him to ask for the song lyrics and Bishop asked if the song was really going to be played that he began to celebrate.

Bishop said one of the unique things that the series producers had done was to use contemporary music even though the series is set during the American Civil War.

“I guess to show that even though we’ve come from so far, there are things today that are still relevant. For some people, it’s very polarising, and some people might be thrown off by the contemporary music because the show is set in that time period but I think it’s cool, because they used artists like Kanye West, Frank Ocean, even the Weekend, in some of their songs in Season One.”

In a Billboard article last year, Legend commented on the series’ musical choices: “Using contemporary music takes it off the museum wall and makes it feel urgent and necessary. It was a creative decision made from the beginning, we didn’t stumble into it.”

K Bishop’s music can be found on Soundcloud.