Don't Be a Menace to South Central While You're Drinking Your Juice in the Hood [PA] (CD - 1996)

Producers include: The Rza, Mr. Sex, Buttnaked Tim Dawg, Tizone, Mr. Dalvin.

There was a time when soundtracks reflected a unified vision of a composer integrated within an equally outlined cinematic presentation. But in these days of multimedia marketing, most soundtracks are singles collections designed to highlight those in-house artists that the companion record company wants to hype. So you get tracks that either aren't featured in the film or have little to do with it (although if you've seen the movie, you know it lacks a plot anyhow). This is decent-to-average hip-hop and urban material, with one exception; "All the Things Your Man Won't Do" by Joe is the kind of overstated challenge tune you normally hear from blues vocalists, done in the oh-so-smooth fashion that's commonplace in the urban contemporary genre. Joe maintains just the right blend of irony, combativeness, suggestiveness and pleading, concluding on a note that virtually forces the song's subject to accept the romantic offer. ~ Ron Wynn

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While You're Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a silly spoof of black urban dramas of the 1990s, like Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, and Juice. Appropriately, the soundtrack is a slightly off-center collection of hip-hop and rap-influenced R&B. Not all of the soundtrack works -- it's too long, for one thing, and there are too many mediocre cuts -- but the songs that are good are first-rate, particularly Ghostface Killah's first solo track. It's just a shame there aren't more than a handful of good songs. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize