Anyone who has seen the film that this soundtrack accompanies would have to be deaf not be at least interested in this album. The film is filled with some of the most amazing arrangements the Rzarector, who does the entire score and soundtrack, has blessed us with in his entire legendary career. Sadly the two best instrumentals in the score are not on the LP. These joints were entirely instrumentation, and every track on the LP has lyrics. But rather than dwell on what was left off the LP, I should be writing about what you do get for your 14.99.
The album opens with one of its (and the films) many spoken excerpts from a book of Samurai philosophies and poems. These breaks serve as nice pacesetters in the film as well as on the album, none are two long and all offer some thought provoking words. After this comes the musical opener, and one of the best joints, “Strange Eyes” by Sunz of Man, 12 O’clock and Blue Raspberry. This song provides the funky epic sound that most of the great one-artist soundtracks have. This song along with Tekitha’s “Walking Through Darkness” show Rza paying homage to the classic soundtracks of the 70’s like Superfly, and Shaft. They are slower paced funky joints that provide a backdrop Ron O’Neal would have felt comfortable strutting to.
The more typically Wu sounding joints on the album include Rza’s “Samurai Showdown” which for a short portion freaks an nice dramatic instrumental but for the most part is driven by a less exciting sample. The Masta Killa blessed, “The Man,” is tainted only by the verses from a wack MC named Superb. Finally, perhaps the best joint on the album is “Fast Shadow.” This is the album's “clan joint” which features a crazy ill appearance by Method Man, along with ODB, Rza, Masta Killa, and U-God, and when this gem is combined with “The Abduction” from the Tony Touch album, it has this reviewer salivating for another Wu project.
The album also includes a few joints you might not expect from Rza. The stand out of which is “Don’t Test” by dancehall crowd rocker Supa Bang Bang. This surprisingly melodic joint freaks a Curtis Mayfield vocal sample into a very interesting song. Another of Rza’s trademark vocal samples is used on the not-as-good-as-it-should-have-been Kool G Rap and Rza collaboration, “Cakes.” Rather than your typical haunting or attacking Rza vocal sample, the one that drives “Cakes” is rather upbeat and doesn’t really hit you, like most of his others do. Another lackluster selection is the annoying Jeru and Afu-Ra collaboration, “East New York Stamp.” While Rza provides a decent backdrop for them, both emcees fail to impress, and Jeru further confirms the belief that he has officially fallen off.
In spite of these minor hindrances, and the lack of some of the best material from the score, the Ghost Dog soundtrack is a very solid project. I’d compare it to the Slam soundtrack in that those that have seen the film might not get everything they expected and hoped for, but as an album on it’s own, the project impresses. Basically this is an entire LP of Rza production, in which he is not always at his best, but is rarely below par. That alone is enough to make most hip-hop heads want to cop it and most of them should go home satisfied.
-Sayre Piotrkowski
