"I've got bars"— Dwayne Johnson talks about rapping as Maui in Moana 2 song

Dwayne Johnson spilled the beans on his Maui character in Moana 2, revealing that his new anthemic song was vocally challenging. In the first movie, Maui sings Your Welcome, a track about his fabulousness, but in the second film, his pump-up anthem, Can I Get a Chee-Hoo, is full of encouragement.

Besides the shift in messaging, the new Maui song in Moana 2 also allowed Johnson to show off his musical chops, especially his love for hip-hop. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, published on Thursday, November 28, he said:

"I got bars. I grew up loving hip-hop music. My love is hip-hop music and traditional country—put them together. That's how I grew up."

Reportedly, Dwayne Johnson's song in the movie is a nugget of musical culture. Lyricists Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear infused the song with the Jawaiian beat, a Hawaiian music sub-genre combining hip-hop and reggae.

They reportedly had 13 experts in different cultural practices and traditions of Oceania review each of the songs they wrote, including Can I Get a Chee-Hoo. Bear explained it to Entertainment Tonight, saying:

"It goes into this reggaeton feel for a second. But that was inspired because the sub-gre of Jawaiian is a huge thing on the islands, and we all thought it'd be fun to inject that somewhere. So we did."

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Dwayne Johnson talks about the importance of his new Maui song's message in Moana 2

Besides admitting that he loves his new song in Moana 2, Dwayne Johnson emphasized the importance of the song's message in his Entertainment Weekly interview. The Smashing Machine star explained how the new song is different from Maui's anthem from the previous movie, saying that You're Welcome from the first film was all about Maui. He said:

"[It was about] You're welcome for everything that I do in this world. But I love the evolution and this idea that it's not about him; it's about empowering somebody else [in Can I Get a Chee-Hoo]."

Near the climax of the sequel, Moana was at her lowest point, and she was ready to give up on her quest to find the lost island of Motufetu. Maui went into supportive mode to pull the heroine out of her slump by singing Can I Get a Chee-Hoo to renew her self-belief.

Talking about the importance of the song's message, Dwayne Johnson took inspiration from having his daughters. He said:

"I'm a proud girl dad of three girls, so I'm all about girl power and I'm all about empowering women."

As for performing the song, the Red One actor admitted that while he loved the song, he had to do "multiple sessions" to get it right. He explained:

"Abigail and Emily came in with something that was very challenging and I loved it. That was multiple sessions to get the song down because it goes into a lot of different places. Their words, not mine, it's 'Bohemian Rhapsody; and all the places that it goes."

Dwayne Johnson said that getting the song right was "a challenge," but he mentioned that he "loved every second" of the process.

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Moana 2 is currently in movie theaters worldwide.