AAVV — Murder Was the Case

The soundtrack of the eponymous movie is sometimes credited in Snoop Dogg's discography, however, it's more a work of Death Row Records and its artists. Second soundtrack of the year and fourth project released in the history of Suge Knight's label. Production is handled by Dr. Dre, Sam Sneed, Jewell, Soopafly, George Archie, DJ Pooh, DJ Quik, DeVante Swing, Sam Man, Kevin Lewis, Marc McWilliams, Big Wy, Lil' Stretch and Dat Niggaz Daz. The performers are Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Tha Dogg Pound, Big Tray Deee, Nate Dogg, Jewell, Lil' Style, Young Swoop, Danny Boy, Sam Sneed, Jodeci, DJ Quik, Slip Capone, CPO, B-Rezell and Young Soldierz.

The soundtrack is inaugurated by the remix of "Murder Was the Case": Snoop's track is both one of the best things on the record and a disappointment, as it clearly falls short of the original track. Dre's honest funky boom bap, slow heavy drum machine, decent samples, Christmas bells in the background, chorus with annoying synths joined by a female choir: on this somewhat generic soundscape, Snoop Doggy Dogg spits bars with a chanting, smooth and good delivery style. Dr. Dre stays in the second tune, giving a slight feeling of coherence in the first two tracks of the record: he's the producer and performer of "Natural Born Killaz". Annoying funky random synths, heavy boom bap, loud samples and random background sounds: it's not Dre's best beat, but he delivers with a hardcore, aggressive style that makes up for this almost shoddy beat, there's also Ice Cube, but his rapping sounds almost unfit on this random noise. The choice is discreet and has the only merit of marking the reconciliation between the two former NWA members. "What Would U Do?" it's a joint of the Dogg Pound and is still at an acceptable level: cheerful and simple rhythm, made by Daz Dillinger, decent samples, drum uptempo, low, cheap and tight, the group performs with a lively and smoothness flow.

Track number four is where the soundtrack drops in quality, then struggles to recover: strange to say, it's a cut of Snoop Dogg, a calm Warren G-style gangsta track. There's still Daz Dillinger behind the keyboards: his sound carpet is cheap, weak funky boom bap composed of scarce synths, Snoop uninspired delivery here, while on the hook is another Long Beach performer, Big Tray Deee (part of Eastsidaz five years later). Nate Dogg brings back some quality in "One More Day", a rnb tune sung over decent funky ballad rhythm by Daz Dillinger, with good samples and a pounding, slow and heavy drum. Jewell sings beautifully in "Harvest for the World", on an accessible soundscape with light g-funk vibes conceived by Dr. Dre: it's probably the best track on the soundtrack, great credit goes to the splendid execution of Jewell. Track number seven is the last one performed by Snoop Dogg: the beatmaker Soopafly places a cheap and weak rhythm, with poor samples, lean pounding hard and slow drum machine, annoying g-funk synths. The beat isn't the best, but the rappers don't help: in addition to Snoop, also performing Tha Dogg Pound, Lil' Style and Young Swoop, the track is almost decent, but not good.

Danny Boy feels out of place with a decently sung rnb cut to DJ Pooh's beats, follows "U Better Recognize": cheap and poor production by Sam Sneed, consisting of low and slow drums, hard pounding and pressing, weak samples and annoying synths, the guy performs badly and drowns the track, Dre is decent on his last appearance on the soundtrack. Jodeci is the main performer on track number ten: poor production by Daz Dillinger, boom bap funky with slow pounding and heavy hard drum, decent delivery by Jodeci with Dogg Pound. "Woman to Woman" is Jewell's second rnb cut, excellent performance on a DJ Quik ballad rhythm, inferior to his previous track. DJ Quik also produces "Dollars & Sense", his solo cut: he realizes one of the few accessible and good rhythms of the edition, flowing smooth and fresh. San Man is the beatmaker of the following track, delivering a cheap beat with a tight, pounding drum and poor synths on the hook, while Slip Capone and CPO spit something out with an uninspired style. B-Rezell has a rnb cut with rhythm by Marc McWilliams and Kevin Lewis, but the guy sings without inspiration. It closes a song by Young Soldierz: economic rhythm boom bap funky by Big Wy and Lil' Stretch, mediocre samples, poor drum, amateur deliveries by these guys.

Released by Death Row alongside Interscope, the album is warmly received by critics and is an easy commercial success: first on the Billboard 200, double platinum in six months, Dogg Pound's solo track is nominated for a Grammy. Suge Knight secures a 2Pac performance in exchange for $ 200,000, however, his piece is ultimately not included in the soundtrack. Composed of 15 tracks for a total of over 73 minutes of listening, the album is too long, very bloated, with no choices below 3:50. Free of bangers or classics, it's quite uneven, messy and watered down with too many rnb songs, often mediocre. It's not a totally bad soundtrack, but it's not an essential listen.

Rating: 5/10.