Maya Angelou's grandson has spoken about one of the late author's final projects: an album, due out this winter, which mixes her poetry and vocals with hip-hop.

Angelou, who died in May, "loved" the project from the beginning, according to her grandson Colin Johnson, who told the Associated Press that some of the 13 songs use pre-recorded vocals from the writer, and some were recorded especially for the new work. The album will be called Caged Bird Songs, in reference to Angelou's most famous piece of writing, her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

The work will be released by Smooch Music on 4 November, produced by musicians Shawn Rivera and RoccStarr. "These guys were inspired by grandma's work, which many people are, and felt like giving it a different medium of delivery to make it more obtainable to a larger group of people," Johnson said.

According to Johnson, who together with his father has founded Caged Bird Legacy, which plans to release future Angelou projects, as soon as the writer was told about the album she "completely backed" it, and it was recorded at her home in North Carolina. "She loved it and was excited to hear more about what they wanted to do," he told the Associated Press. "She had a lot of energy around it … She saw (hip-hop) as this generation's way of speaking and conveying a message."

As well as her award-winning volumes of poetry and memoir, Angelou had previously recorded a calypso album, written songs for films and musicals, and won prizes for her spoken word albums.

"To hear somebody that is so famous for her poetry and her message, and then set to some music that you can enjoy definitely feels like this is something that can continue her reach through generations," Johnson told the AP.