Star Trek: Picard
Jeff Russo follows his low-thrust scores with a more emotional, allusive mission. The autumnal title track nods lovingly to Jean-Luc’s earlier flute flirtations; cap-doffs to Jerry Goldsmith/Alexander Courage also light the way. The 157-minute haul suffers from longueurs, but Russo’s tense (‘Borg Cube’), tender (‘Talking To Data’) stand-outs engage warmly with past and future.
Twenty-five years back, Ice Cube aimed to transform our perceptions of South Central LA. “After movies like Boyz N The Hood, Menace II Society and South Central came out, everybody thought the way we grew up was the worst thing ever in life,” says the former N.W.A rapper. His response was Friday, a wickedly quotable stoner comedy about a (mostly) beautiful day in the neighbourhood, packaged with a beautifully baked soundtrack to match.
If N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton album influenced Boyz, Friday milked Cube’s 1993 hit ‘It Was A Good Day’. The Isley Brothers-sampling track marked the beginning of a fine partnership, for starters: after directing the ‘Good Day’ promo, F. Gary Gray banked his feature debut with Friday. And the influence of ‘Good Day’ extends to Cube’s title track, a party banger with an infectious beat beneath his righteous delivery.
Sweet-leaf believers Cypress Hill contributed the pungent ‘Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up’, though they would later accuse Cube of stealing one of their beats for ‘Friday’. But no
fallouts tarnished the soundtrack’s break-out hit. After his classic 1992 album, The Chronic, N.W.A’s Dr. Dre secured his reputation as hip-hop’s finest producer with ‘Keep Their Heads Ringin’’, a liquid-slick G-funk classic with a superlative Dre rap and gorgeous backing vocals from Death Row Records’ Nanci Fletcher.
Elsewhere, Friday maintains a heady strike rate in its impeccably curated mix of gangsta rap, soul-funk and disco. Rapper Threat issues insinuating rhymes over super-funky beats on ‘Lettin’ Niggas Know’; Mack 10 presides over chilled slow-burner ‘Take A Hit’ in style; and E-A-Ski’s ‘Blast If I Have To’ taunts playfully. Cube also secured originals from R&B vets The Isley Brothers (‘Tryin’ To See Another Day’) and P-funk pair Bootsy Collins/Bernie Worrell (‘You Got Me Wide Open’), alongside choice retro-cuts from Rose Royce (‘I Wanna Get Next To You’, honouring the influence of 1976 comedy Car Wash) and punk-funk pioneer Rick James (‘Mary Jane’).
“You usually don’t get The Isley Brothers and a fresh Dr. Dre song,” said Cube, duly proud. While Friday became a cult hit, spawned two patchy sequels and generated memes (“Bye Felicia!” – spelt ‘Felisha’ in the film), the soundtrack hit the Billboard No. 1. Is it the best ’90s hip-hop soundtrack? That’s debatable, but it captured a time and place with standard-setting class. As Cube’s Craig almost said, maybe the neighbourhood didn’t look the same after Friday. Kevin Harley