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GHOST DOG: The Way of the Samurai/The Album

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Oct 1, 2000

GHOST DOG: The Way of the Samurai/The Album
B.|||||||7.8
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O.|||||||7.9

i'll admit, when i went to Streetside Records to pick up GHOST DOG--i had one thing on my mind--the mesmeric eeriness of RZA's beats that i heard for two hours in the movie. Once i purchased the album however, i was somewhat disappointed that almost none of those beats were on the soundtrack. What was on the album was all produced by RZA (that same sometimes slightly off beat, roughly cut samples played on keyboards in minor key, backed by ill snares and percussion combinations dug out of international milk crates,) but somehow, these latest cuts don't seem quite as impressive as the past.

It might have been the dark depths the movie dove to, mixed with surprisingly good acting and humorous scenes that biased my opinion of the soundtrack(?), but it seems to me, over the past several years, RZA hasn't been putting as much care and effort into his work. i'll admit to loving nearly all of RZA's work (i thought "Bobby Digital" was ill as hell,) and I do enjoy hearing this album, but i'll have to say, it's just okay.

i'm a stickler for tightly knit concepts and crafted sample arrangements, so the repetitive "Strange Eyes" and oring "North Star" i couldn't hang with. "Black Knights" kept me intrigued with some spooky mood music, but lyrics were just so-so. "Cakes" with KOOL G RAP was more upbeat with some randomly placed sound bites of female vocals that added well to the guitar samples and the JAMES BROWN horn blasts. RZA and KOOL G RAP held down their mics well over this aggressive track. The next couple of songs are worth hearing once, but they're awefully simple. MASTA KILLAH and SUPERB (of GHOSTFACE's latest album) lace a powerful beat with interesting conversationesque rhymes in "The Man."

my favorite song on the whole album is "East New York Stamp," starring JERU THE DAMAJA and AFU RA. this two minute song is almost a cut-out snippet from "Sub Crazy" on METHOD MAN's first album. it uses the exact same samples that were originally dope--but that's kind of cheating, RZA biting himself like that...oh well. "Fast Shadow," the official WU-TANG cut, starring METH, ODB, U-GOD, and RZA, is nice to hear after so much garbage coming from others capitalizing off their symbol. RZA's own song and finale of the album is a more melancholy sounding metaphor about the battling of samurais and

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