This Soundtrack Sure Smells Like A Winner

Various Artists “Next Friday”

“Next Friday,” the sequel to Ice Cube’s hit comedy “Friday,” is indeed a comedy. However, you might not know this just from listening to the soundtrack, which focuses on party songs from some of rap’s top performers.

The biggest and best song on the album suprisingly doesn’t come from Wyclef, Bizzy Bone, Eminem or even Wu-Tang Clan. The song is “Chin Music” the first song from N.W.A. in quite some time. The group has been re-created by Ice Cube and now features the likes of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, and Snoop Dogg replacing the late Eazy E. It doesn’t exactly sound like the old N.W.A. but it’s equally as good.

The other hip-hop tracks aren’t lucky enough to be as noteworthy, with the exception being the bouncy Pharoahe Monch track “Livin’ It Up,” an outtake from his recent solo album.

Eminem’s genuinely clever skills are less revered every time he entertains shock value (“Murder Murder”) and the Ice Cube/Mack 10 cut, “You Can Do It,” sounds like a remix to the previous Cube cut “We Be Clubbin’.”

On the R&B side, Aaliyah, who seems to make her living on soundtracks, proves she doesn’t necessarily need the stylings of Timbaland to get people open (“I Don’t Wanna”).

Hit or miss, though, the soundtrack reeks of success, the product of Ice Cube’s recent Midas touch.

Grade: A-