Top 5 Movie Soundtracks

I’m not much of a movie buff, but one thing I do know is music, more specifically, hip-hop music. There has been some prominent movies released in my lifetime, and their soundtracks did not fail to deliver. Here’s my top 5 movie soundtrack list of all time.

5. Boomerang
This movie was hilarious and one of my personal favorites from Eddie Murphy. The soundtrack was pretty good too. It’s the softest album on my list, due to a large presence of R&B, but it still managed to produce the classic track, “Hot Sex” by A Tribe Called Quest. That song coupled with the classic love ballad “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men did enough to crack the top 5.

4. Juice
Tupac Shakur was brilliant in this movie. He’s by far the best rapper/actor not named Will Smith of all time. I found it strange that he didn’t have any tracks on the album though. This kept it from moving up any higher on my list, but the tracks “Uptown Anthem” by Naughty By Nature, and “Juice” by Eric B. & Rakim made this album pretty solid.

3. Above The Rim
This movie features another wonderful acting performance from Tupac Shakur, and this album gets it right by featuring one of his tracks. The song “Pour Out A Little Liquor” alone makes this album worth a listen, but when you add in “Regulate” by Warren G & Nate Dogg, and “Afro Puffs” by The Lady of Rage & Snoop Dogg, this album becomes pretty dope.

2. Friday

Friday is one of my favorite movies of all time. There are too many quotables and hilarious characters to count. The soundtrack is every bit as good as the movie. It has a mixture of older classics such as “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” by Roger Troutman, and” Mary Jane” by Rick James to go along with newer songs (for that time period) such as “Keep Their Heads Ringing” by Dr. Dre, and “Friday” by Ice Cube. The album absolutely captures the Los Angeles vibe. If you’ve spent an extensive amount of time in L.A., then you’ll understand what I’m referring to.

1. American Gangster
Although this is isn’t “technically” a soundtrack released with the movie, it’s still a concept album that is based on the story, uses the same title, and has songs that are based on certain scenes. American Gangster is head and shoulders better than any other movie soundtrack ever released. It might be a little unfair to compare it to movie soundtracks because it’s an actual album, that was composed, written and produced with the expectation of it being another number one album under Jay-Z’s belt, while the rest of these albums are merely compilations of music that were used in the films. With that said, songs like “Roc Boys”, “American Dreamin'”, “Party Life”, and “Say Hello” really capture the essence of the drug dealer theme and spirit of the actual movie, and as a whole, it’s one of Jigga’s best albums.

Honorable Mention: The Player’s Club, Car Wash, Baby Boy, The Wiz