Awesome ‘90s Rap Soundtracks: The “Bulworth” Edition Posted by Max Weinstein on 02/06/14 | Filed under Rap Nerdery, 90s Soundtracks

Peace to the RefinedHype Nation. If you know like we know, you remember a time when rap soundtracks were more than just exhibits of Jay-Z’s wonderfully developed palette - they were packed with exclusives, buzzing singles and incredible collaborations. The compilations were actually sought out by listeners because they contained never before heard tracks from the hottest artists of the time. 

Still, when you think of 90’s rap, soundtracks might not be the first thing that come to mind; that’s what I'm here for. Every Thursday, I’ll be covering a different 90’s rap soundtrack, and you’ll never know what kind of rarities will pop up. First up – the soundtrack to 1998’s "Bulworth".

The soundtrack kicks off with what stiff white suits surely thought was an amazing idea – LL Cool J and Dr. Dre on the same record! You might know that “Zoom” went through a couple early stages before having LL on it – first it was meant for Snoop and Dre’s collaborative album "Break Up To Make Up", but that LP got scrapped with the quickness. So Dre gave the beat to King Tee for “6 N’ Na Moe’nin” on his "Thy Kingdom Come" album, but that got shelved too. It was finally recorded with LL and released as a single for the "Bulworth OST".

“Ghetto Supastar” is up next, a song that everyone’s familiar with. It was on Bulworth two months before the official single dropped in June of ’98. After that is “How Come” by the odd couple of Youssou N’Dour and Canibus; the former is a Senegalese vocalist, while Canibus is the guy that pulled out a notebook during a rap battle had been working with Wyclef Jean on his Can-I-Bus album that dropped in September of that year. You can hear Wyclef on the chorus asking important questions like why he has to get up for work in the morning. I feel you, Clef.

This is unbelievable. The highlight of the soundtrack might come at track four, where Prodigy, KRS-One, Method Man and Kam go in on a DJ Muggs beat. P sparks it off with tongue-twisting rhymes before KRS sounds pissed and disses “racists” at magazines like Rolling Stone, Spin and Details: “You’ll print about black mayors, black senators / Why you ain’t got no black editors?” Ice Cube’s cousin Kam (who dropped a classic album in 1993) contains himself, but Meth sounds rattled too, and the product is an incendiary track.

Witchdoctor follows with “Holiday/12 Scanner” from his celebrated ...A S.W.A.T. Healin' Ritual LP, and then RZA drops an uber-Bobby Digital track with “Chase” that might or might not be a PCP hallucination. Eve shines on a dope Mel-Man beat with “Eve of Destruction” and West Coast heavyweights Ice Cube and Mack 10 collaborate on “Maniac in the Brainiac” to advocate lyrical violence.

The last stretch of the soundtrack dips a little lower in quality than the rest of the project. There’s a rapper named Nutta Butta who we won’t speak of unless he’s offering us Nutter Butters. There’s a Black Eyed Peas song that jams, but we won’t talk about that either unless they offer us $5 million. Cappadonna keeps it grimey with “Run,” a classic song from his The Pillage album. B-Real gets creepy on “Lunatics in The Grass” and Public Enemy keeps the rage alive with “Kill Em Live.” Chuck D doesn’t have the bomming command in his voice that he did when PE first came out, but the track still goes.

Finally, D-Fyne cleans up with a straightforward claim – “Bitches Are Hustlers Too.” It’s actually a much-needed sentiment; in such a hyper masculine culture like hip-hop, we often forget that the ladies can be just as ruthless as male gangsters.

In 1998 the golden age of rap soundtracks was starting to fade. "Bulworth" kept hope alive: between a posse cut with Method Man, Prodigy and KRS-One, a collaboration of West Coast legends, or a bugged out RZA track, this project is sure to keep you just as entertained as the movie does. Stay tuned for next week’s soundtrack – it’s gonna crack you up.

(By Max Weinstein, @dubmaxx)