The soundtrack of the 1999 Jim Jarmusch film features an original score by RZA and also features hip-hop songs by such artists as Wu-Tang Clan, Killah Priest, and Public Enemy. Two soundtrack albums were released, one internationally and another in Japan, each with different song mixes, some of which do not appear in the film. There are many songs, however, that can be heard in the film that appear on neither soundtrack album. It is the first of RZA's fully scored film works.
| Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Music from the Motion Picture) | |
| Type: | film score |
| Artist: | RZA, various artists |
| Cover: | Ghostdogsoundtrackjapan.jpg |
| Released: | 1999 (Japan) |
| Genre: | Hip hop |
| Label: | JVC Records |
| Producer: | RZA |
| Prev Title: | Bobby Digital in Stereo |
| Prev Year: | 1998 |
| Next Title: | Hits |
| Next Year: | 1999 |
The score release was released in 1999 as a Japan exclusive and focuses on the original instrumental score of the film, while also including vocal tracks from Wu-Tang Clan and RZA that were not heard in the film.
| Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai – The Album | |
| Type: | soundtrack |
| Artist: | RZA, various artists |
| Cover: | Ghostdogsoundtrackus.jpg.jpg |
| Released: | April 11, 2000 |
| Genre: | Hip hop |
| Label: | Razor Sharp, Epic, SME |
| Producer: | RZA |
| Prev Title: | The RZA Hits |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Next Title: | Digital Bullet |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
The song soundtrack features music from the film as well as quotations from Hagakure: the Book of the Samurai by Tsunetomo Yamamoto (translated into English by William Scott Wilson) as read by Forest Whitaker in the voice of the title character. However, the focus of this album is on the songs, not the instrumental score of the movie.
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album an "A−" grade and called it "hip-hop as mystery, beauty, pleasure—as idealized aural environment." He said that RZA uses vocals musically, as the lyrical content is acceptable but not important, and that the album is more efficient than Curtis Mayfield's Superfly and John Lurie's Get Shorty in "the essential soundtrack service of consistent background listenability."[1] Christgau ranked it the seventh best album of the year in his list for the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.[2] In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Matt Whalley gave Ghost Dog four stars and was disappointed that "so few people got to hear" the album, which he felt was "prime RZA".[3]
A number of songs appear in the film but are on neither soundtrack album release. They include the following: