Anthony Ramos, cast of ‘Transformers’ discuss their connection to ‘90s hip-hop

The hip-hop music doesn't miss a beat in "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts."

Set in Brooklyn, New York in 1994, the film is a followup to 2018’s "Transformers" prequel “Bumblebee,” which took place in 1987. The new feature follows Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) and Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) as they work with the Autobots — and an animal-themed species called Maximals — to fight against the evil Terrorcons, who plan to destroy Earth.

At the Brooklyn, New York premiere of the film, some of the cast and crew spoke to TODAY.com about what it was like to hear songs from the 90s in the film and how that specific era of hip-hop influenced them.

Ramos, whose character Noah is an ex-military engineer trying to make ends meet for his family, says his older brother, Mario, first introduced him to hip-hop, which has been a staple in his life.

"I always listened to Notorious BIG and Jay Z and all those guys, so that was a huge part of my childhood," says the 31-year-old actor. "My brother was always blasting hip-hop in the house. That's how I grew up."

Brooklyn also serves as the hometown of both Biggie and Jay Z, who heavily influenced the music genre during that time. The film's director, Steven Caple Jr., says bringing in '90s hip-hop culture to his film was intentional.

"I chose every song (in the movie), so everything from SWV to Nas to Wu-Tang, all music albums I listened to growing up, Biggie — you're gonna hear DMX, all of that," he says. "Specifically, this is '94, but up until — you want to go to '99, the sound started to really take over. But I just love music. And I try to incorporate music big time in all my other films and work with artists that I admired."

Ron Perelman, who voices Optimus Primal, a robot gorilla, tells TODAY.com he was a 40-something-year-old dad when hip-hop hit the scene. He says he never heard of it "until my kids started demanding that that’s what we listened to on the way to school in the morning."

"My very first foray were the Fugees and (their) first album," he recalls. "It was like, 'Oh, yeah, okay.' You could very well come from a generation like mine, which is a few ahead of what the kids are trying to force feed me."

He remembers thinking listeners "could very well look at it as a lot more than noise."

"Man, there’s a lot of really deep thought here and social commentary," he says. "Very, very poetic, brilliant wordsmithing."

While the '90s hip-hop influenced soundtrack is just one part of the music fans will hear in the film, the score makes up the rest. Jongnic Bontemps, who composed music for the film, says even without lyrics, he created a score to mirror hip-hop's defining features and to celebrate Brooklyn, his hometown.

"I am a hip-hop baby," he says. "I'm a kid from the '90s. I'm from New York, so that music is in my blood. So when it came down to write the score, I wanted to make sure that we represented Brooklyn right. So we have a little bit of that TR808 rolling drum machine throughout, but it's still a 'Transformers' score. So it's big. It's epic. It's emotional, heartfelt, cinematic, but yet, we still weaving a little bit of Brooklyn here and there for that flavor."

John DiMaggio voices Transit, a plane, and tells TODAY.com that he was a 20-something-year-old comedian in the city when hip-hop was gaining popularity.

"'94 was an unbelievable time to be in New York and for hip-hop," he says. "Biggie came out in '94. Oh, man. Forget about (the rest). So this movie has everything you need."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com