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May 5 - 12, 2000

[Music Reviews]

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GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI

(Epic/Razorsharp/Sony Music Soundtrax)

Hollywood is running out of Shakespeare plays, E.M. Forster novels, campy TV shows, and golden-age film classics to remake, so now we have Ghost Dog, a film inspired by a couple of songs from Wu-Tang Forever (1997). But there's a law of diminishing returns at work here, and the RZA's soundtrack -- the accompaniment to a good movie based on a visionary album -- sounds pretty damn diminished. Ghostface Killah, by far Wu-Tang Clan's best MC, sat this one out, passing the microphone to folks whose names alone have become Wu punch lines: Blue Raspberry, Masta Killa, Tekitha, La the Darkman. The RZA's aimless beats, though well suited to Jim Jarmusch's sleepy movie, don't make for very good rap songs, and Forest Whitaker's swashbuckling science (he reads from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai between songs) is no less ridiculous on the album than it was on screen. There are a few reasons to be optimistic about the RZA's long-promised solo album: "Zip Code" is a brisk, otherworldly dose of his current keyboard infatuation, and "Strange Eyes" would be great without the vocals. Someone should tell the RZA that if the Wu-Tang Clan still want to take over the world, they'll need something sharper than "Music makes me lose control/This is not just rock and roll/Hip-hop digs right to the soul/Music makes me lose control."

-- Kelefa Sanneh
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