Various Artists - Friday: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Serious Tunes to Accompany a Hella Funny Classic Comedy

Ice Cube's soundtrack to accompany the 1995 movie is a well-balanced mix of gangsta rap, g-funk, and cool R&B (some of it old-school soul). Dr. Dre's "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" is an all around fun time classic that got constant rotation in my native Southern Cali in spring of 1995. The beat is some sick deep-groove funk produced by Sam Sneed, a sick g-funk producer from Pittsburgh, Pa. Ice Cube'e "Friday" is a classic house party joint with a flamboyant lowrider beat. We also get Rick James 1978 classic, the laidback and soulful weed ode, "Mary Jane," a song sampled 1000 times (or more) for rap joints. We also get some Miami booty bass on ther raunchy "Hoochie Mama." We also get to sample some sweet Rose Royce, the soul packed "I Wanna Get Next To You," a cool jam with sophistication. Roger, from Zapp, kicks in his slick talkbox in "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Cypress Hill lights up a spliff on the raw underground boom-bap vibin' "Roll it Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up." E-A-Ski kicks in some deadly verses on "Blast If I Have To" with him and CMT producing a menacing, loud G-Funk beat. The Isley Brothers get it new school on the cool, swingin hood livin' anthem "Trying To See Another Day," and Ronnie Isley still has that dope, tenor voice that made so many hits decades before. The beat is guitar driven and deep-groovin' New Jack style; at times, it sounds like a rock beat. One of my favorite joints is Scarface and Mad CJ Mac's party starter "Friday Night," over a deep-twangy, Texas style G-Funk lowrider ready beat by N.O. Joe perfect to roll ya 64 down I-10 from L.A. to Houston. The rest of the songs ranging from the Alkaholiks, to Bootsy Collins, to Mack 10 all bang and bridge the gap between the old-school and newer school and display different styles of music. December 24, 2007

a terrific cd

this is a great album to cruise in your car to. i bought the friday/friday-old school 2 cd set at best buy because there was only like $1 difference, i'm not sure which one i like better, they are both that good - if you only have one of the friday cd's - you much get the other. sure a couple of the songs are on both (mary jane, and a different version of heard it through the grape vine) but its still worth it. i love cruising around to War's "low rider" playing with the bass turned up - great times. one of Dr. Dre's best songs - "keep their heads ringin'" is on here, and another one of my favs is Ice Cube's "Friday" but the whole cd is full of great music to drive to, the old school cd is another great cd, a nice change of pace after listening to the original for awhile but still gives you the same kinda feeling.

James Brown - "hit it and quit it, come on now, can we hit it and quit it, hit it and quit it now.... a dat - dat - dat - dat - dat - dat - dat" October 26, 2006

The best, most appropriate movie soundtrack ever?

I don't pretend to spend enough time watching movies from the 20th Century long enough to make this statement, but this Friday Soundtrack is pretty damn close to the best I've heard from any movie of any kind.

I will however stand behind proclaiming this the greatest hip hop soundtrack of all-time!

With this CD, you get a movie soundtrack that combines old school soul with new school West Coast hip hop that ruled the better part of the early '90s and fits this movie's 1995 South Central L.A. setting.

Obviously it will help a listener relate and understand the place of each song on this soundtrack by actually watching the movie first -- otherwise, you'll probably take this CD's creative interpretations as nothing more than easy listening for bluntheads and triflin', good-4-nuthin' type of bruthaz who don't have jobs.

This isn't that kind of negative movie -- it's more light-hearted, very funny, very laid back and the soundtrack reflects that.

The soundtrack gets off to a flawless start with two tracks that were and continue to be four-star hip hop bangers: Ice Cube's "Friday" and Dr. Dre's "Keep They Heads Ringin'". Cube's title track basically puts it down as far as talking about the fun, sometimes querky, sometimes violent and hella crazy antics that go down in his 'hood (thus, why you need to see the movie to relate). The other is a smash party/dance track with an adequate Dre rap over a hype, relentless Dre beat (enough said).

Mixed in you get the original recordings of some of "Our parents music" with classics like the Isley Brothers "Tryin' 2 see another day," "You Got me wide open" by Bootsy Collins, the classic Rick James track "Mary Jane" and the soulful, slow love ballad "I Wanna Get Next to You" by Rose Royce.

In between you get fitting tracks from (then) contemporary hip hop acts like Cypress Hill ("Roll It Up, Light It Up"), Threat ("Lettin' N****z Know") and the crunk classic "Hoochie Mama" by 2 Live Crew (one of my personal favs -- LOL, they not rhymin' 'bout all women, but a certain kinda person).

Perhaps the best thing about this soundtrack and really a template for what makes a great soundtrack great is when you have a compilation of appropriate fitting songs that actually relate to scenes, emotions and plots from the movie.

This may sound dubious but too many post-1997 soundtracks -- hip hop-inspired anyway -- totally went away from this formula, turning soundtracks into free for alls for new artists doing mostly tired, throwaway songs that in several cases weren't even featured in the movie.

"Friday" is the quintessential hip hop soundtrack masterpiece! May 31, 2006

Light A Bowl 2 This 1!

Cube has made 1 Stoner master peice, and I'mma not talking about the movie, I'mma talkin' about the damn Soundtrack, man!
Best Songs:
1.) Keep Their Heads Ringin' -Dr. Dre
2.) Friday -Ice Cube
3.) Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up -Cypress Hill
4.) Friday Night -Scarface feat. CJ Mac
5.) Superhoes -Funkdoobiest
6.) Take A Hit -Mack 10
7.) Lettin' Niggas Know -THREAT
8.) Mary Jane -Rick James
9.) Blast If I Have To -E-A-Ski
10.) Coast II Coast -Tha Alkaholiks
11.) Tryin' To See Another Day -The Isley Brothers
12.) Hoochie Mama -2 Live Crew
13.) I Heard It Through The Grapevine -Roger Troutman
14.) I Wanna Get Next To You -Rose Royce
&
15.) Yo Got Me Wide Open -Bootsy Colling & Bernie Worrel November 12, 2005

GREAT CD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have both the movie, and the soundtrack, And both are good. Some of my favorites on this CD are Friday, Keep their Heads Ringin', Mary Jane, and Hoochie Mama. September 1, 2005

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