So I wasn’t going to jump in on this soundtrack game but i was flipping through the channels last night and to my surprise Dave Chappelle's "Block Party" was on. I immediately think of the multiple posts we have been doing about Soundtracks Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, The Trav Edition and The Forgotten Soundtrack but Chappelle's Block Party hasn’t been mentioned.
Dave Chappelle's block Party was a great documentary in my opinion. It was cool to see him bring together a bunch of musicians to perform out on "The Block.”
So despite my want to keep out of the soundtrack game here is Dave Chappelle's “Block Party
1. Hip Hop....................... Dead Prez 5:00
2. Definition.................... Blackstar 3:42
3. Golden......................... Jill Scott 5:21
4. Universal Magnetic... Mos Def 2:49
5. The Blast..................... Talib Kweli 3:44
6. The Light..................... Common 7:02
7. Boom............................. The Roots 3:18
8. Back In The Day......... Erykah Badu 4:06
9. The Way..................... Jill Scott 7:14
10. Umi Says................... Mos Def 9:16
11. You Got Me............... The Roots 9:57
12. Born & Raised........... Blackstar 5:54
“Block Party” Here
For kicks here is a great interview with Dave Chappelle Download Here
11/09/2009
Still Tracking Sound
10/29/2009
Hip Hop Soundtracks: The Trav Edition
You thought it was over? Not quite. I stopped buying movie soundtracks a while ago, mainly because they started really sucking, but damn, you had some good ones back in the day. It's just another example of how things have changed, it gives a cantankerous old man something more to bitch about. As usual, I have to get my two cents in and the final word. My distinguished colleague BC did an excellent job covering the roles of soundtracks played in hip hop and throwing up some of the best ones. All my favorites were present, Juice, Menace II Society, and even The Show. However he did skip over three of my favorites. What are those you ask yourself as you try to hide this window behind your work email? Well, Colors, CB4 and Boyz N The Hood were all three soundtracks that got just as much play from me back in the day as a lot of the albums.
Colors (Warner Bros, 1988)
Va_Colors__1988_.rar
1 Ice-T - Colors
2 Decadent Dub Team - Six Gun (44 Mag Mix)
3 Salt 'N' Pepa - Let The Rhythm Run
4 Big Daddy Kane - Raw
5 Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (Seven Minutes Of Madness - The Coldcut Remix)
6 Kool G Rap - Butcher Shop
7 7A3 - Mad Mad World
8 Roxanne Shanté - Go On Girl
9 MC Shan - A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste
10 Rick James - Everywhere I Go (Colors)
For a Hollywood contrived film about the hood, this isn't actually a bad movie. Sure, it's got the typical Hollywood glamor and glitz with a young and cocky Sean Penn teamed together with veteran actor Robert Duvall to do a fairly decent job of portraying cops on the gang beat. Dennis Hopper directed the film, which probably has something to do with the quality of the flick.
This was probably my first visual exposure of the L.A. gang culture. I had already be introduced to NWA through their NWA & The Posse Macola release, but seeing it first hand had the same effect as a shoot 'em western flick but instead of being set in the wild west, it was the urban jungle. I remember renting this from one of those busted out local movie rental places and liking it so much, I never returned it. I just never rented there again and I think it went out of business a few months later (I wonder why). It's been awhile since I've since watched it, but I remember being the horny little 8th or 9th grader that I was, I'd rewind the love scene with the sizzling latina that was Penn's love interest in the movie. Mamacita bonita!
As far a soundtrack, it's one of my favorites although he does have a couple weak links. Coming in at a mere ten tracks, the only two L.A. artists make an appearance on the soundtrack in Ice-T and 7A3. You will notice the strong ties to the Cold Chillin' roster, with artists like Big Daddy Kane, MC Shan, Kool G Rap and Roxanne Shante all appearing on the album. That had a lot to do with the fact that Warner Bros just started a relationship with Marley Marl's and Fly Ty's label, so they did the most they could to put their artists on the soundtrack.
Ice T - Colors
I'm trying to remember if this was my first exposure to Ice-T. It could quite possibly be, as I think it was later in that summer that I discovered a bootleg tape of "Rhyme Pays" at my local state fair. Any kid that was from the west and listened to hip hop knew the words to the song. Even my friends that weren't into hip hop knew the words to "Colors". To this day, it's still one of my top 5 favorite Ice-T joints. With the crazy scratching, the "colors" chanting over the chorus and the ill bass line, it was a popular choice of the day.
Decadent Dub Team - Six Gun (44 Mix)
I always kinda dug the drums on this track, and just saw that this was remixed by none other than Dr. Dre himself (seriously can't believe that I didn't know that or forgot it). I always thought it was weird that this track showed up second on the soundtrack when it's more of a last track kind of song. It usually got the skip treatment back in the day. And just to prove that everyone got some kind of networking account: http://www.myspace.com/decadentdubteam.
Salt N Pepa - Let The Rhythm Run
Back when this dropped, I was totally anti-female MCs and hadn't yet realized the greatness that his Hurby Luv Bug, so this got the quick skip as well. I can appreciate it's attempt now and it's really not a bad song, but more than likely something that was left off the Salt N Pepa's "Salt With a Deadly Pepa" album.
Big Daddy Kane - Raw
At the time this dropped, it was real close to the release of Kane's debut album, I'm not sure which came first. This is thought of as the original version and the version on Kane's album is the "remix", although not much is different except for the tracks introduction. "Raw" is probably one of my top five all-time favorite hip hop songs, and it was this soundtrack that I first heard the track. The dub cassette I had got a lot of rewind on this part of it.
Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full (Seven Minutes of Madness - The Cold Cut Re-mix)
Amazingly enough, this track was my introduction to Eric B & Rakim as well. I wasn't deep enough into hip hop in '87 when their debut album by the same name dropped to know about them. If it wasn't on Def Jam at that time or had some kind of ties (I know they were managed by Rush, but that doesn't count), I probably didn't hear it. The Soul Searchers drum break of course drew me into the track. Rakim's complex lyrics for the time and his gruff delivery warmed me even further. The scratching at the end of the track was just the icing on the cake.
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Butcher Shop
This track would show up prior to being on their debut album, "Road To The Riches", and was also the first time I heard of G Rap. "Butcher Shop" at one time was probably my favorite track on the soundtrack, with the scratching, G Rap killing it lyrically and the dope ass beat, I was loving this.
7A3 - Mad Mad World
7A3 will forever go down in the books as being DJ Muggs first group, which in some ways is an unfortunate occurrence since they were a fairly talented group. This song kinda got lost in the greatness of tracks such as "Butcher Shop", "Raw", and "Colors", but I would give it a listen with it's familiar horn sample.
Roxanne Shante - Go On Girl
Did I say I disliked female MCs back in the day? Yes, I did, and I did dislike them. Yet for some reason, this track never got skipped. I guess it was the beat that hooked me, but Shante was also evil on the mic.
MC Shan - A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Waste
This might be bands for expulsion from the hip hop world, but I've NEVER been a MC Shan fan. I liked some of his singles, but for the most part, I never went out of my way to listen to a Shan track. This didn't do much for me neither.
Rick James - Everywhere I Go (Colors)
I had no appreciation for anything not hip hop about the time I started listening to the Colors soundtrack. I didn't appreciate stuff like Prince, Cameo (ok I did like "Word Up") or James Brown and I didn't appreciate Rick James. I never played this track, I would just rewind it and start over again. Listening to it later, I realize it's a solid track that was worthy of my young ears back in those days.
CB4 (MCA, 1993)
/CB4_Soundtrack.rar
1 Public Enemy - The 13th Message / Livin' In A Zoo 7:24
2 Boogie Down Productions - Black Cop 2:59
3 MC Ren - May Day On The Front Line 4:01
4 Hurricane (2) - Stick 'Em Up 2:58
5 Fu-Schnickens - Sneaking Up On Ya 3:24
6 Parental Advisory - Lifeline 4:38
7 P.M. Dawn - The Nocturnal Is In The House 4:19
8 Blackstreet - Baby Be Mine 5:53
9 Tracie Spencer - It's Alright 3:46
10 CB4 - Sweat Of My Balls 3:10
11 CB4 - Straight Out Of Locash 3:10
12 CB4 - Rapper's Delight 5:35
CB4 was a movie that you had to be into the hip hop culture to enjoy and to really get all the jokes to it. I remember going with some friends to the theater to watch it that were only casual hip hop listeners. They'd laugh and shit, but half the time I don't think they really knew what they were laughing at. Chris Rock did fairly decent job at capturing the parody that was gangsta rap at the time. I wouldn't call it a classic, but I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
The soundtrack for the movie had it's strong points, with many established artists such as KRS, Public Enemy and MC Ren. I wouldn't say there are some classic joints blessing the project, but some it contained some tracks that got a lot of play on my "Soundtracks" mixtape I had made around this time.
Public Enemy - Livin' In a Zoo
This was around the time that P.E. started slipping some musically. It wasn't that they had lost their edge, but the line up of the Bomb Squad that had made their first three albums so musically ground breaking, had changed and the sampling debate had killed some of their sound. This track sounds like something you would hear on their "Greatest Misses" album and the "Muse Sick-N-Hour Message" album. It was good, just not the Public Enemy that I had grown to love.
Boogie Down Productions - Black Cop
Interestingly enough, the song is credited as a Boogie Down Productions song on the soundtrack, but would later show up on KRS's first solo album a few months later. Go figure. "Black Cop" is probably the best song on the soundtrack, with a sick Pal Joey beat (dude should have produced more hip hop) that defined what "boom bap" was.
MC Ren - May Day on The Frontline
One of the more unpopular opinions that I have is that MC Ren was just as good an MC as Cube and my favorite member of NWA. Ren didn't get the solo shine that Cube or Dre or even Eazy got, but I still purchased his EP "Kizz My Black Azz". "May Day On the Front Line", appeared on the soundtrack first, but would later be on his "Shock of the Hour" LP. It's a good if not an unspectacular track, a menacing beat and Ren just using his trademarked flow to deliver an acceptable track.
Hurricane feat The Beastie Boys - Stick 'Em Up
This might have been Hurricane's first solo track, after appearing as the Beasties DJ and a member of The Afros. This was during a time when the Beasties were darlings of the alternative scene. I always dug this track, if nothing else for the Beasties influence that is all over the track.
Fu-Schnikens - Sneakin' Up On Ya
I was NEVER a Fu-Schnikens fan. I didn't hate them or anything, but I didn't buy any of their albums when the were released. They just weren't my thing. I think that fact that they had Shaq with them, I saw it as kind of a gimmick so I stayed away. When I got the soundtrack, I was expecting this track to strictly fast forward material, but it quickly became my favorite song on the soundtrack. Of course the Diamond produced beat helped a lot, but even their lyrical performances got me hooked. Often I'd be at my night job as a food service aide at a hospital spitting Chip Fu's verse. Yeah, I got some weird looks.
Parental Advisory - Lifeline
"Lifeline" was a track I always liked well enough, yet I never bothered looking much into the group, Parental Advisory. I've checked the mostly Organized Noise produced LP "Ghetto Street Funk," since then, but I should have paid them more attention back then based on the strength of this track. As previously mentioned, the track was produced by Organized Noise, one of their first productions. I was a big fan of the early Dungeon Family/Organized Noise sound, and this is perfect reason why. The group kind of reminded of a southern Above The Law.
PM Dawn - The Nocturnal is in the House
I can't possibly explain how much I hated PM Dawn around this time. After all, they weren't real hip hop I reasoned. They were on some soft punk sissy bullshit. I was glad that KRS threw they punk asses of the stage (by the way, does anyone else find it somewhat humorous that both PM Dawn and KRS show up on the same soundtrack?). But in the same way I liked Father MC's song "Pimp Or Die" on "Who's The Man" soundtrack that BC covered already, I secretly liked "Nocturnal is in the House". Listening to it now, I still like the shit....as much as it still pains me to say that.
Blackstreet - Baby Be Mine
I wasn't much into R&B in those days, although looking back there was some quality R&B being played. I did like this song though. Blackstreet was one of the few R&B groups (with Tony Toni Tone) I would listen to in those days.
Tracie Spencer - It's Alright
This got the fast forward treatment in the day, and I didn't get past a minute this time around.
CB4 - Sweat Of My Balls, Straight Outta Locash, Rapper's Delight
The last three tracks are credited to the fictitious group CB4, who (despite what wikipedia says) was Hi-C and Daddy-O on the the first two tracks, "Sweat Of My Balls", and "Straight Outta Locash". I always thought the combination of Daddy-O and Hi-C was a rather interesting combination that I doubt we would have ever seen any other way. "Sweat Of My Balls" was a favorite of my friends and I, one we would sing anytime we were throwing barbs at each other. "Rapper's Delight" would also feature Kool Moe Dee, making it an even more odd lineup. All three songs are good, but more of a novelty than anything else.
Boyz N The Hood (Qwest, 1991)
boyz_n_the_hood.rar
1 Ice Cube - How To Survive In South Central 3:40
2 Tevin Campbell - Just Ask Me To 4:08
3 Yo-Yo - Mama Don't Take No Mess 4:05
4 CMW - Growin' Up In The Hood 4:13
5 Main Source - Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball (Remix) 4:02
6 Tony! Toni! Toné! - Me & You 4:11
7 Monie Love - Work It Out 4:15
8 Kam (2) - Every Single Weekend 4:37
9 Hi-Five - Too Young 4:35
10 2 Live Crew, The - Hangin' Out 2:36
11 Too Short - It's Your Life 4:47
12 Force One Network - Spirit (Does Anyone Care?) 4:19
13 Quincy Jones - Setembro 5:07
14 Stanley Clarke - Black On Black Crime 4:36
I'm sure a lot of people argue on what the best "hood" flic is, commonly Juice or Menace II Society will come up, but my money was always on Boyz N The Hood. Yes, it did have that after school special quality to it at certain times in the film. It could be a little preachy, but the acting was some top quality with a up and coming Cuba Gooding Jr, Laurence Fishburne and the show stealing Ice Cube. It's one of the few movies that I ever saw twice in a movie theater, once with a couple of my fellow hip hop heads and a second time on a date with cute Hawaiian chick that was half freaked out that I would take her to a movie such as Boyz N The Hood. I still own it on DVD and tend to pop it in the DVD player every six months or so.
The soundtrack walked very close to being to R&Bish for me in my younger years, but the classic tracks on it more than made up for it. I would buy it on CD in 1991, which was rare for me, I usually stuck to tapes unless it was something really dope. Some reason I thought the soundtrack was important enough to cop on CD.
Ice Cube - How To Survive In South Central
Cube had released "Amerikkka's Most Wanted" about a year earlier and was huge in my book in those years. When I heard the track on the movie, I knew I had to buy the soundtrack, if nothing else, for that track alone. The song is like being on a tour bus through the bad streets of South Central, something which I was probably never going to experience. It's also one of the earlier Sir Jinx productions, who I was already a fan of due to his work on Cube's debut and WC & The Madd Circle album. This song is nothing short of classic in my book and one of the best tracks to grace a soundtrack and never show up on an album.
Tevin Campbell - Just Ask Me To
Again, I was pretty much anti R&B at that age in '91, but I would always play this song on my journey through the soundtrack. Tevin was just a kid back then, but he held his own with some memorable lines and of course the Al B Sure! production helped a lot as well. I was a sucka for some good New Jack Swing production, which is the vibe "Just Ask Me To" was on. Oh yeah, the fact that Chubb spit a dope rhyme during the bridge, helped a lot to get play from me....fourteen, G!
Yo-Yo - Mama Don't Take No Mess
Even Yo-Yo didn't get a pass at my dislike for most female MCs. I'd play this every once in awhile, if nothing else I liked the DJ Pooh beat. Yo-Yo does a fine job on the cut and probably should have gotten more attention from me back in the day.
Compton's Most Wanted - Grown Up In The Hood
"Wake Your Punk Ass Up", that line was a common one I would use all that summer and fall. I had purchased a used tape of "It's a Compton Thang", CMW's debut album, but they were by no means my favorite. They damn near stole the album with "Grown Up In The Hood" and one could argue that it is the marque track on the album. It really marked CMW as one of the premier west coast groups.
Main Source - Friendly Game of Baseball (Remix)
Maybe my memory is slipping me, but I could swear the version that is on my CD is different than the one I downloaded to listen to while writing. My CDs are still in boxes after my move (2 months ago, I need to get them out), so I can't verify if I'm just getting senile or not. The version I remember was dope, this version sucks.
Tony Toni Tone - Just Me & You
Maybe because I've seen the movie so many times and know when certain songs appear in the movie gives me a greater appreciation for certain songs such as this one. I like it, what else can I say?
Monie Love - Work It Out
I have said a couple times on this post that I disliked female MCs. Would you care to guess who was the first female I bought an album from? You guessed it, Monie Love. I guess I had a thing for "Monie In The Middle", so I followed Mon's career. I liked "Worked It Out" as well, she was somewhat different with her multiple symbol style. The beat was co-produced by none other than DJ Jazzy Jeff. I just learned that while writing this up.
Kam - Every Single Weekend
I liked Kam, but for some reason, I never bought any of his albums. This track was a solid track, backed by a DJ Pooh track which sounded heavy in my little Jetta I had back in those days.
High-Five - Too Young
Eh, the beat was cool on this track, but as much as I disliked female MCs, I probably disliked kid rappers (and singers) just as much. This got the fast forward.
2 Live Crew - Hangin' Out
One of the few non sex only related songs 2 Live ever put out. I loved this track, if nothing else for the rumbling bass the joint possessed. I also made a pause tape mix using the intro, with Cube saying "Shut up bitch" from the movie. I would rap word for word when I had this track blasting in the Jetta, my only problem with it was it was too short.
Too Short - It's Your Life
One of the few unoriginal songs (I guess the Main Source track was on their LP as well) that shows up on the soundtrack. The track was one of my favorites on the "Short Dog's In The House" LP, but since it had been out over a year by the time it showed up on here, sometimes I would skip over it.
Force One Network - Spirit (Does Anybody Care?)
I skipped it then and I skipped it now....
Quincy Jones - Setembro
Ah yes, the part of the movie that Trey finally gets with Brandi. It's a great song for that scene and maybe that's why I'd play it. Sometimes, if I was in a certain mood, I'd just put on these last two songs and veg out to it. I could be somewhat open minded at times, but I never put much effort in investigating this type of music any deeper.
Stanley Clarke - Black On Black Crime
I loved the score for the film and I loved this music on the movie. It's strong, passionate, sad, and moving all in the same sense. Also the fact that it contained lines from the movie made me like it some. I wasn't familiar with Stanley Clarke at the time, but the name always stuck with me and is probably the reason why I own some of his earlier work on vinyl today.
10/19/2009
Hip-Hop Soundtracks Pt. 3
Part 3 y'all. In my opinion, these should be getting better, so hopefully you enjoy the three soundtracks below.
Ride – 1998
https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=Z01PRm80QTZTSUJjR0E9PQ
This is another movie that I have never seen. I don’t even know what this is about, so I’ll look it up real quick. I’m guessing something to do with cars.
Okay, I was wrong. It was about a bunch of people taking a bus trip from Harlem to Miami, according to IMDB. Here are the plot keywords from IMDB: Fart Scene, Flatulence, One Word Title, Hip-Hop, Independent Film. Sticky Fingaz is in it.
The cover is similar to what High School High and Street Fighter did, just a generic looking cover, I assume this is to distance the soundtrack from the crap movie.
1)The Weekend – Dave Hollister feat. Redman and Erick Sermon – I love the emcee’s on this track, but overall, I’m not a huge fan of the song.
2) The Worst – Wu-Tang and Onyx – I like this song and especially dig the ODB hook.
3) Blood Money, Pt. 2 – Noreaga feat. Nas and Nature – I think the chorus is underwhelming, but overall it’s a good track.
4) Outta Sight – Rufus Blaq – I was a fan of this track when I got this soundtrack. I ended up buying the Rufus Blaq LP, but I barely even listened to it. The late 90’s weren’t always a good time for hip-hop. This is about the time my focus on hip-hop went from major label artists to primarily independent.
5) Soldier Funk – Mia X feat. Fiend and Mac – If you were into No Limit crap, then you may like this.
6) The Game – Mack 10, Big Mike and DJ U-Neek feat. EWF – This song is decent.
7) The Symptoms – Black Ceasar – Generic funk track.
8) Feels So Good – Eastsiders feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg – To me, this is another generic funk track w/ an r&b chorus. There were about 4-5 sounds (or noises) that were in most funk tracks and this has at least 3 of those. One of those sounds is at about 12 seconds in if you want to know what I’m talking about.
9) Mourn You Til I Join You – Naughty By Nature – This is Treach’s song about the death of 2Pac.
10) Jam On It – Cardan feat. Jermaine Dupri – Always hated Jermaine Dupri myself. He’s still a better MC than Puffy though, but that’s not saying much.
11) Higher – Sexions – I think this song is decent, maybe it’s the samples.
12) Callin’ – Amari – No.
13) Why – Eric Benet and The Roots – This is a real soulful track and one of the few r&b songs from these soundtracks that I enjoy. I kind of liked Eric Benet until he punked out and wanted spousal support from Halle Berry after they split.
14) No One – Somethin’ For the People feat. Trina and Tamara – Nope.
15) Can’t Get Enough – Raphael Saadiq feat. Willie Max – I like Raphael Siddiq, but this is not a good song. Again, I hate generic beat machine r&b and that’s what this is. Buy Saadiq’s last album, that’s worth the money.
16) Never Say Goodbye – Adriana Evans feat. Phife – Basically, all you hear is goodbye for the first 2 minutes, but I like this song. Phife has about 2 bars.
The Show – 1995
Grab It
This is a movie that I didn’t see, but that I actually wanted to see. I really should check this out sometime if I can get a hold of it. All I remember from this movie is Meth clowning on U-God for some reason. Well, and that it’s a behind the scenes concert film directed by Brian Robbins, one of the kids from Head of the Class.
I’m going to skip listing the skits, or clips. They are available in the download.
2) Live!!! – Onyx – Pretty good track from the bald heads.
4) My Block – 2Pac – Real nice Pac song produced by Easy Mo Bee. It’s still crazy how young he was when he died, especially now that I’ve long surpassed the age he was when he died.
5) What’s Up Star? – Suga – I don’t mind this track and kind of like the beat.
7) How High – Redman and Method Man – You know this song is good. You know it.
9) Everyday Thang – Bone, Thugs and Harmony – Not their best if you ask me, a guy that isn’t a huge Bone fan.
10) Everyday It Rains – Mary J. Blige – The Queen of R&B Soul! Well, I’ve never been a fan. She can sing, but early on (90s), all she did was sing over a bunch of samples that I had already heard. That’s Puffy for ya.
12) Ol’ Skool – Isaac 2 Isaac – Skip this.
13) Domino’s in the House – Domino – A couple more funk samples/sounds that were in all of the 90’s funk songs. This song is okay.
14) Summertime in the LBC – The Dove Shack – Sorry, I never liked this song and still don’t.
16) Sowhatusayin – South Central Cartel – I feel like I’m so negative, but I was never into SCC (the other Havoc and Prodigy but w/ different spelling).
17) Zoom Zooms and Wam Wam – Jayo Felony – This song starts with one of those generic funk sample/sounds. Jayo had a different type of flow, that I enjoyed sometimes. I looked him up recently and found a MySpace page and it sounds like he is half of what he used to be.
18) Droppin’ Bombz – Trey w/ So. Sentrelle – Can you tell the 90’s were owned by the West? A lot of songs sounded the same.
20) Still Can’t Fade It – Warren G Productions – This song is okay. I feel like I could sing this chorus though.
21) Papa Luv It – LL Cool J – LL catering to the ladies? What a shock.
22) Glamour and Glitz – ATCQ – One of the greatest groups in hip-hop history with another great song.
24) Kill Dem All – Kali Ranks – To me this is one of those songs you listen to when you’re in a “mood”, like one of those screw the world moods. Does it get anymore “screw the world” then kill them all? I think not.
25) Me and My Bitch (Live) – Biggie – Biggie live.
I think there’s a fair amount of filler on here, but there are some worthwhile tracks. I need to find a copy of this movie and check it out finally.
Judgement Night – 1993
Check It Out Here
I saw this movie and thought it was okay. It had Dennis Leary, Stephen Dorff, Emilio Estevez, Jeremy Piven (pre-hair plugs) and the man himself, Everlast. Basically, some dudes wander into a bad neighborhood and see something they shouldn’t have and Leary and his thugs (Everlast) give chase throughout the city to snuff them out.
Best line in the movie: “Lucy… I’m home!” – Everlast
This album was one of the first to feature rap/rock, which became popular in the late 90’s.
1)Just Another Victim – Helmet and House of Pain – This song gets good once Everlast comes in with his verse. Up to then, it’s nothing special, but then it is.
2) Fallin’ – Teenage Fan Club and De La Soul – This is a great trippy track that has De La riffing on (dissing) Daisy Dukes by Duice at the end of the song. Great song.
3) Me, Myself and My Microphone – Living Colour and Run DMC – I liked both of these groups, but they were both past their prime at this point.
4) Judgement Night – Biohazard and Onyx – These two groups seemed to fit well together. I think you’ll dig this track if you’re an Onyx fan.
5) Disorder - Slayer and Ice-T – This is another one of the tracks not worth listening to.
6) Another Body Murdered – Faith No More and Boo-Yaa Tribe – I love this song. This is the song that we put on our basketball warm-up tape that made our coach cut the music and take away our warm-up privileges for the last game senior year. I told my friend to put it on for the last game, but he said no one would notice the cursing. Anyway, it’s a great song and the backup vocals from Faith No More are great.
7) I Love you Mary Jane – Sonic youth and Cypress Hill – WHA…??? Cypress Hill and weed? I’m not into this track.
8) Freak Momma – Mudhoney and Sir-Mix-A-Lot –This is one of the more laughable songs on here.
9) Missing Link – Dinosaur Jr. and Del tha Fukee Homosapien – Another great song and a great pairing.
10) Come and Die – Therapy? And Fatal – This is a good song. I can’t remember much about that Fatal dude, but this song feels more like a metal track, but I still thought it was good.
11) Real Thing – Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill – This is the Cypress song on here that I like. Click, click, bang, bang, cause it ain’t no thang!
Overall, this album reminds me of high school. This is one of those albums that my friend’s and I listened to back in the days. While it’s not perfect, there are enough good songs on here to make this a solid to great soundtrack.
10/14/2009
Hip-Hop Soundtracks Pt. 2
Here are some more soundtracks from the 90’s for you. I am saving some of the best for last, so I’ll be getting those up in the next couple posts I get up, but there’s some good stuff here as well.
Friday – 1995
https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=Y1RxWUhuTWNEa1h2Wmc9PQ
I don’t think I have to say a lot about this movie. Most hip-hop heads have seen this movie and know that it’s a classic to us. The movie was written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, who became one of the many people to be closely affiliated with Cube to end up feeling shafted in some way by him (i.e. Kam, King Sun, Da Lench Mob, et al). This is a pretty solid soundtrack that mixes new songs (at the time) and some classic r&b/funk.
1) Friday – Ice Cube – A great song that contains quite a few commonly used funk samples.
2) Keep Their Heads Ringin’ – Dr. Dre – Dre and Cube patched things up and Dre provided this head nodder. Hey you, sitting over there, you better get on out of your chair.
3) Friday Night – Scarface – A funky track from Face. There’s another dude on this track too and if I ever knew who it was at one time, it escapes me now.
4) Lettin’ Niggas Know – Threat – Threat made a few small waves in the mid-90’s and I like this track. I’m not too familiar with his career and he has one of those names that makes it hard to search the web for more information. One thing I did learn is that rapper Asher Roth apparently helped foil a bomb threat. That’s what I got for searching Threat and rapper. For some reason, I think of him and Mista Grimm as having similar careers that just never quite took off.
5) Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up – Cypress Hill – A bit of a departure for Cypress, as they didn’t usually talk too much about smoking weed usually. This song is okay, but I always found it hard to listen to songs that were exclusively about weed. Yeah, I know the movie has a large weed plotline.
6) Take A Hit – Mack 10 – This is a Cube produced track and it’s pretty solid. I can’t place the sample, and for some reason, it isn’t listed in the liner notes.
7) Tryin’ To See Another Day – The Isley Brothers – Not my thing.
8) You Got Me Wide Open – Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell – A blah song produced by Cube and Bootsy.
9) Mary Jane – Rick James – Classis Rick James song that I assume is about a lovely lady named Mary.
10) I Wanna Get Next To You – Rose Royce – Love this song.
11) Superhoes – Funkdoobiest – Hey, it’s that group with that dude that did that porno, Sun Doobie. You’ll have to ask Eminem about the acting ability of Mr. Doobie. Decent song and I always liked his unique flow. I think he’s making albums in Canada w/ Battle Axe these days.
12) Coast II Coast – Tha Alkaholiks – This was the name of the Liks’ second LP, but this song is only on here. It’s not one of their best, but solid, from one of my favorite groups.
13) Blast If I Have To – E-A-Ski – Kind of a generic West coast track.
14) Hoochie Mama – 2 Live Crew – Big booty ho’s hop wit it!!! Pure crap. But, play it for your friends and have a laugh.
15) I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Roger – Not sure if they made this for the soundtrack, or if this was around before. Pretty crappy cover if you ask me. It would fit in today w/ all of the auto tune we have going on now.
Overall, I think this is a solid soundtrack and one of the ones I’m glad I purchased.
High School High – 1996
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I never saw this movie and I never once thought about ever seeing it. Sorry, Jon Lovitz. This soundtrack is a mix of hip-hop and r&b, so there’s some filler.
1) So Many Ways – The Braxtons – You might like it. I don’t.
2) I Got Somebody Else – Changing Faces – Okay, EPMD used this sample as well, but I can’t place what song. Help me out if you know.
3) Wu-Wear: The Garment Renaissance – Rza feat. Method Man and Cappadonna – My favorite song about a line of clothing with a list of preservatives.
4) Get Down For Mine – Real Live – Another EPMD used sample, this time I know what it is, Manslaughter. I don’t know anything about this group, or person, but I would rather listen to EPMD. This song gets some points for the scratching though; I can never get enough scratching. I wish more artists would feature a DJ cutting it up.
5) I Just Can’t – Faith Evans – This song is okay.
6) Your Precious Love – D’Angelo and Erykah Badu – An Ashford and Simpson cover. It’s not great.
7) The Rap World – Large Professor and Pete Rock – Nice song, even with Pete Rock on the mic.
8) Queen Bitch – Lil’ Kim – Hey, it’s Lil’ Kim before she looked like a plastic doll. I’d have to say she’s my favorite Lil’ next to Fame, but it’s a really big drop off.
9) Why You Wanna Funk? – Spice 1 feat. E-40 and The Click – I feel like for every 1 artist that was doing some great things with funk in the 90’s, there were another 10 that were butchering it. This song falls in the butchering category.
10) I Can’t Call It –De La Soul – Nice track from De La. I haven’t listened to this in quite some time, but I’m going to be adding it to my rotation again.
11) Bohemian Rhapsody – The Braids – I always dug this cover of the Queen hit. I know this group had an album sometime after this soundtrack came out, but I don’t think it did much, and I haven’t heard much of them since. By much of, I mean nothing.
12) High School Rock – KRS One – This is a pretty dope track from the Blastmaster with a Rakim sample as the hook.
13) Peace, Prosperity and Paper – A Tribe Called Quest – Never heard of them. I like this song and wish this group made an album. That’s a joke, yo.
14) Wild Side – Jodeci – I liked Jodeci a lot. I just hated when K-Ci and Jojo sang all over every rap chorus in the 90’s. If you liked Jodeci, you will like this song.
15) The Ultimate – The Artifacts – This is a great song and it’s on their second (last) album.
16) The Next Spot – Sadat X and Grand Puba – This is another song worth your time, so download this and check it out if you don’t have it.
17) Skrilla – Scarface and Facemob – This is a nice song, I’m not really feeling the chorus, but it’s solid. The little De La interpolation in there is nice. I’m not too familiar with him to be honest, but I think Devin the Dude is in there, as part of Facemob.
18) Semi-Automatic: Full Rap Metal Jacket – Inspectah Deck, U-God and Street – I always loved this beat. It’s definitely something you can pin on Rza, that’s for sure. Nice song.
19) The Good, the Bad and the Desolate - The Roots – There’s not much too special about this track, but it’s good. I never really liked the reggae dude over the chorus.
20) C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train), Pt. 2 – Quad City DJ’s – These guys sure made some junk. For some reason they were able to get some songs tagged on the end of soundtracks. I really don’t think a sequel was necessary. A prequel on the other hand, might have been refreshing, as I would love to know what the Quad City DJ’s were doing before they rode the train.
Overall, I think this is an average soundtrack. There are some songs worth checking out and some filler you don’t need. This is pretty standard for a lot of these soundtracks.
Menace II Society – 1993
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I loved this movie, although it’s been a while since I’ve seen it. It came out after Boyz N the Hood, but I liked it more. For those that might not know, Pac was supposed to be in this movie, but was dropped for some reason. So, in true Pac fashion, he had some associates beat down the Hughes brothers, who ended up suing Mr. Shakur.
1)Nigga Gots No Heart – Spice 1 – Not a bad song, nice and mellow. Spice 1 never had the tightest flow, but this is a good song.
2) Streight Up Menace – MC Eiht – Jeah. He really overused his jeahs. This is a good song, again real mellow, but I like the orchestral-type sample/beat. I think he had a small role in the movie as well.
3) Packin’ a Gun – Ant Banks – This isn’t my favorite track, but it’s listenable.
4) Top of the World – Kenya Gruv – Not really my cup of tea.
5) Only the Strong Survive – Too Short – Beeeeyotch! Not a bad song, but not one of my favs.
6) All Over a Ho – Mz. Kilo – I can tolerate this song. She was in the same mold as Bo$$, who ended up getting her second LP shelved because she was CB4ing it. I couldn’t find much on Mz. Kilo though.
7) Guerillas Ain’t Gangstas – Da Lench Mob – I always liked this song and I think Lench Mob fans would enjoy this track. Don’t worry, no Maulkie on here.
8) You Been Played – Smooth – I always enjoyed this song. I think this is one of the best tracks on here, but I’m sure a lot of people would disagree. I remember hearing a few other songs from Smooth and I wasn’t impressed.
9) Lick Dem Muthaphuckas – Brand Nubian – A little East coast rap here. I like this song and you should check it out.
10) Death Becomes You – Pete Rock and CL Smooth w/ YG’z – NY again. I definitely skew to the East, but I’m an equal opportunity listener. Anyway, this is a nice song.
11) Unconditional Love – The Hi-Fives – Generic r&b for that ass!
12) ‘P’ is Still Free – Boogie Down Productions – We’re in a little East side run here. Pretty dope track.
13) Stop Lookin’ At Me – Cutthroats – Man, I forgot about this song, as far as I can remember, these guys were Onyx-like and affiliated w/ Guru.
14) Pocket Full of Stones – UGK – Mellow track. I was never a UGK fan, so feel free to savage me.
15) Can’t Fuck Wit a Nigga - DJ Quik – I was never a Quik fan either. I did enjoy Quik dissing Everlast by saying he looked like a woman, this coming from the skinny dude with jheri curls. I don’t remember who started this beef, I think it may have been Everlast on the Legend single, but I think this came out first, so maybe this was the start of it.
16) Trigga Gots No Heart – Spice 1 – See track 1.
I enjoyed this soundtrack at the time it came out and it really fit in with the film. They packed the album with a plethora of West coast artists and smattering of East coast and Southern artists. How’s that for mastering the English language? I think this is definitely worth having.
