Soundtrack Information

BaadAsssss Cinema: The Sounds of Blaxploitation

BaadAsssss Cinema: The Sounds of Blaxploitation

TVT Records (TV-6630-2)

Release Date: 2002

Format: CD

Music By

  • Various Artists

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Track Listing

1. "people Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul" - James Brown
2. "Expansions" - Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes
3. "Coffy Is The Color" - Roy Ayers
4. "Pusherman" - Curtis Mayfield
5. "We Be's Gettin' Down" - Graham Central Station
6. "Main Title: Truck Turner" - Isaac Hayes
7. "Big Papa" - Edwin Starr
8. "Happy Head (Theme from "Ghetto Man")" - WAR
9. "Be Thankful For What You Got" - William De Vaughn
10. "Express" - B.G. Express
11. "Cornbread" - The Blackbyrds
12. "The Bottle" - Gil Scott-Heron
13. "Sweetback's Theme" - Earth, Wind & Fire
Track lengths not available for this album. If you have track length/time information for this album, please e-mail it to us at mail@soundtrack.net and we will add it to the database.

Review: BaadAsssss Cinema: The Sounds of Blaxploitation

by SoundtrackNet Staff (SF) July 13, 2004
4 / 5 Stars

You're going to laugh at me, but "People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul" is the only James Brown song I've heard in its entirety. I know! But no, I'm not kidding. In all fairness (and knowing my parents), I'm sure I've heard much more of the Godfather, I just don't remember. Sad, that. "People Get Up..." kicks off the soundtrack to IFC's documentary on blaxploitation and kicks it off well.

The documentary BaadAsssss Cinema takes a hindsight look at the slew of so-called "Blaxploitation" films from the early to mid seventies, with lots of commentary from the stars of said films (e.g. Pam Grier), critics (Elvis Mitchell anyone?) and filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino, heh). For someone unfamiliar with the genre, it's an hour long survey course definitely worth checking out.  I actually dozed off near the very end (shhhh - don't tell!), but I do remember hearing a good bit of the music on the soundtrack intermingled with movie clips and interviews. I like that it was there and recognizable but not overpowering and in-your-face.

And let's be honest - with James Brown, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes on the same record, the possibility for overpowering is just there. The music supervisor who put this together has a fine sense of balance; the pace slows down in a few places ("We Be's Gettin' Down"), but it doesn't get tedious or cliché. It just grooves right on through all thirteen tracks. This is the kind of record that could just as easily be your driving music as the background at a Sunday afternoon barbeque.

You'll have to forgive me for not dissecting each track, but I find that to be wholly unnecessary for this soundtrack. It just is what it is, and whether you're interested in the film genre of blaxploitation or not, do yourself and your funky soul a favor: go get this soundtrack and leave it in whatever disc changer you've got.

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