VA - Light It Up - Music From And Inspired By The Movie (1999)

Whether a movie starring Judd Nelson can claim to be an authentic tale of survival at an inner-city high school is clearly debatable. Because the soundtrack for the movie features teen heartthrobs 'N Sync harmonizing on a Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds's ballad, poetic license--if not straight-out romanticizing--is clearly being exercised here. The 13 tracks mostly present different dimensions of hip-hop, but none approaches the real menace of gangsta rap. The textures vary from the reflective, somber synthesizer of Ja Rule's "How Many Wanna" to the schoolyard taunt of Master P's title track. Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" gets a rewrite as "Ghetto Is a Battlefield" from Blaze and Firestarr (featuring Fredro Starr, a former member of Onyx and now an actor in this film). Bob Marley's "Waiting in Vain" is given the 1999 treatment by Jon B., who went to Kingston, Jamaica, to cut the track at Tuff Gong studios, where Marley recorded many of his classics. Now there's authenticity for you. --Rob O'Connor