VA - Get On The Bus - Music From And Inspired By The Motion (1996)

Get On The Bus is a 1996 drama road film about a group of African-American men who are taking a cross-country bus trip in order to participate in the Million Man March. Directed by Spike Lee and premiering on the first anniversary of the March, it is the first film directed by Lee in which he does not appear.

The title track from Curtis Mayfield's New World Order is also included on the soundtrack for Spike Lee's film about the Million Man March, Get on the Bus. Mayfield proclaims sweat is rolling down the Statue of Liberty's brow because she's worried that "the sleeping giant" of racism and classism "is no longer sleeping." Similar calls to action are issued by such political rappers as Guru and a Tribe Called Quest. The album's highlight is a powerful version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" by Stevie Wonder. Though hip-hop and R&B dominate the album, two of the best cuts are gospel numbers. Kirk Franklin's "My Life Is in Your Hands" is religious, but the Neville Brothers' "Over a Million Strong" makes the connection between gospel music and political justice as the Civil Rights movement once did in the '60s.~Geoffrey Himes