Music From and Inspired by Shaft

Various Artists

LaFace, 2000

Buy it online

Tracks
1: Theme From Shaft/Isaac Hayes
2: Bad Man/R. Kelly
3: Up And Outta Here/R. Kelly
4: Do What I Gotta Do/Donell Jones
5: Rock Wit You/Alicia Keys
6: We Servin'/Big Gip (from Goldie Mob)
7: Tough Guy/OutKast
8: 2 Glock 9's/T.I.P. (featuring Beanie Sigel)
9: Summer Rain/Carl Thomas
10: Automatic/Sleepy Brown (featuring BackBone & Big Rube)
11: Pimp Sh*t/Too $hort
12: Cheatin'/ Liberty City
13: Fix Me/Parle' (featuring Jadakiss & Eve)
14: How You Want It?/ Mil
15: Aint' Gonna See Tomorrow/Mystical
16: My Lovin' Will Give You Something/Angie Stone
17: Serenata Negra/Fulanito

Reviewed by David Middleton

 

Read about Shaft's legacy in fiction on January Magazine.

 

 

 The Center for Reuniting Families | Dr. Peter Huber

"Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?" Hardly a question that needs be asked, because it can only be one man. Shaft. John Shaft.

Damn right.

Of course, Music From and Inspired by Shaft starts off with the obligatory, "Theme From Shaft." It has been reworked and cleaned up some but stays absolutely true to the now 30-year-old original. From the familiar opening guitar lick to the signature sexy basso of Mr. Isaac Hayes, it brings back nostalgic images of Richard Roundtree smacking some fool upside the head. But we're not talking about the old Shaft, we're talking about the new Shaft: Shaft for today; modern Shaft; Samuel. L Jackson's Shaft. And with that in mind, Shaft has combined some of the best of the old school late 1960s/early 70s Motown-influenced romantic funk with the tough and streetwise sound of the newer urban outfits.

What does it mean exactly when music is inspired by a movie? Does it mean that some of the artists on this disk saw the movie and then wrote a song or two in homage? That seems improbable considering that these days soundtracks are usually released on the same date as -- and in some cases before -- the movie itself. Or is the title simply there as a nod to those artists who supplied music for the movie but their songs never made it to the screen? And if you haven't seen the movie, it's hard to tell which songs were actually used and which were "inspired by," because the difficult-to-read liner notes don't make that distinction.

The Shaft soundtrack offers a good mix of tunes, though. It's refreshing to hear Sleepy Brown's "Automatic," a rap verse heavily laced with wakka-wakka guitars, flutes and smooth-as-molasses Hayes-style vocals and includes other such nods to the past. R. Kelly's "Bad Man" and "Up And Outta Here" as well as angel-voiced Alicia Keys' "Rock Wit U" are so true to form that it's hard to believe they were not written in an era when mile-high 'fros and corduroy bell-bottoms were de rigueur. Combine these with edgy rap and hip hop like OutKast's "Tough Guy," Too $hort's harsh and descriptive "Pimp Sh*t," and Mystical's angry and intense "Ain't Gonna See Tomorrow" and you have an interesting cross-section of outstanding, if somewhat over-hyped, music.

The now tried and true practice of releasing and promoting a soundtrack album that consists of nothing more than different songs supplied by various artists -- and on occasion encompassing various musical genres -- can make the soundtrack itself difficult to review without the need to pull each song and artist apart or somehow be able to relate each piece of music to its part in the movie. An album like this is often not a proper soundtrack at all, but rather a group of songs which individually play in the background of a particular scene (which, I guess, still puts it on the "soundtrack," right? You know, the part you hear). The score -- the music used to create atmosphere and tension, having a heavy thematic element and often composed by a single individual -- is the film's actual musical soundtrack, which if it has been released, gets much less press and promotion. So there are perhaps two types of soundtrack: The Score and Music From (and/or inspired by) the Film. This particular Shaft soundtrack falls into the latter category.

In some cases, a song included on this type of compilation will only play right at the end of the movie, long after the audience has gotten up, rubbed the pins and needles out of their numb legs and asses, gotten bored with watching the end credits and gone home. So the song is now not even part of the movie and instead of helping create mood is now delegated to being a background for the hundreds of names scrolling past. Chariots of Fire, Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Godfather -- they had soundtracks. And while Shaft has some superior songs from some well known and supremely talented artists, I don't consider it to be a true soundtrack. For me it's simply a teaser to get people listening to, curious about and searching for the albums by the artists included on this compilation. On the other hand, being able to say you contributed a song to a Samuel L. Jackson movie probably looks good on your resume.

Right on. | July 2000


David Middleton is the art director of Blue Coupe magazine.

From the familiar opening guitar lick to the signature sexy basso of Mr. Isaac Hayes, it brings back nostalgic images of Richard Roundtree smacking some fool upside the head. But we're not talking about the old Shaft, we're talking about the new Shaft: Shaft for today; modern Shaft; Samuel. L Jackson's Shaft.