A few years ago,
\nBlade<\/i> came out just as the comic-movie craze was becoming a
\nsaturated landfill in the theaters. Low-budget, smacking of B-movie
\ncharm, the movie was not expected to do well. However, Wesley
\nSnipes’s dead-on bad-ass performance and cutting-edge special
\neffects (those who saw
\nThe Matrix<\/i> were a little more prepared to be bowled over
\nafter seeing some of the scenes in
\nBlade<\/i>), helped made the movie a modest hit. Now that the
\nvideo has been out for years, it has become a major cult hit.<\/p>\n
Of course, a sequel was inevitable. Only this time, the budget
\nis fatter than P-Diddy’s payroll and expectations are much larger.
\nHappy Walters, CEO of Immortal Records was put in charge of
\nassembling a soundtrack to fit the movie. He has manned the boards
\nfor such hip-hop-meets-heavy metal-collaborations as
\nJudgment Night<\/i> and
\nSpawn<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Much like his past two soundtracks, Walters aims to strike a
\nbalance between commercial and critical acclaim. For
\nBlade II<\/i>, it seems that Walters is leaning toward the latter
\nbalance. The soundtrack features some of the most innovative
\nartists in trip-hop as well as hip-hop.<\/p>\n
The pairings are inspired: Mystical meets up with Moby; Redman
\nand Gorrillaz; Cypress Hill and Roni Size; The Roots and BT; Ice
\nCube and Paul Oakenfold, just to name a few. The dream combo in the
\nsoundtrack is a collaboration featuring trip-hop pioneers Massive
\nAttack and hip-hop visionary Mos Def.<\/p>\n
Much like all-star teams and superhero team-ups, some pairings
\nwork and some just seem to fall apart. Massive Attack’s spooky,
\natmospheric beats work perfectly with Mos Def’s confidant,
\nsmooth-flowing delivery. Even though the lyrics to “We Be Like
\nThis” may smack of hip-hop clich\u00e9s, the slamming beats
\nprovided by Jadakiss, Danny Saber and Fabolous are so infectious
\nthat you couldn’t care less.<\/p>\n
“Gorillaz On My Mind,” a fun, funky collaboration between
\nGorillaz and Redman brings out the best in both artists. For
\nRedman, an artist plagued by recent weak efforts, the
\ncomic-book-style energy provided by Gorillaz seemed to re-energize
\nRedman’s creative process. And Redman’s presence made Gorillaz seem
\nwell, less cartoonish.<\/p>\n
Of course, other experiments do not work nearly as well. “The
\nOne,” in insipid number featuring Busta Rhymes, Silkk The Shocker
\nand Danny Saber, is almost forgotten once “We Be Like This” comes
\non. It doesn’t help that Silkk’s limited lyrical and rapping skills
\nis matched up with Rhymes’ furious, creative energy.<\/p>\n
Unlike other so-called mergers of different musical styles,
\nBlade II<\/i> rarely feels like it’s contrived or rehearsed. The
\ndark, moody beats of many of these trip-hop artists mesh well and
\nactually give a good amount of depth to some of the hip-hop artists
\non the list. So what if the movie may turn out to be over-hyped,
\ninferior to the original and a big-budget disappointment? The
\nsoundtrack already ranks among the best in recent memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6722],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37346","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-soundtrack","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37346"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}