Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai(Epic/Razorsharp)

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

(Epic/Razorsharp)

Just as it's almost impossible to picture anyone but Forest Whitaker playing the placid, pigeon-raising hit man hero of Jim Jarmusch's meditative, hypnotic gangsta fable Ghost Dog, it's damn near inconceivable to imagine anyone but Wu-Tang abbot Robert "RZA" Diggs masterminding the film's equally compelling soundtrack. In fact, Ghost Dog is a chilling apotheosis of the Wu-Tang doctrine of fusing arcane Eastern philosophy with ruffneck street ethics. Even more impressively, RZA pulls it off using almost strictly the Wu's B squad, though Method Man and ODB do show up on "Fast Shadow." Opener "Strange Eyes" is classic RZA, with a loping beat, seriously funky guitar/organ loop, 12 O'Clock and Blueberry's spooky vocal line, and vividly agile narratives from the Sunz of Man. North Star lives up to his "moving more murder messages than me and Leatherface" boast on the graphic "4 Sho Sho," and the mixed-gender Black Knights demonstrate the bicoastal nature of the Killer Bee sting on "Zip Code." Ever the watchful talent scout, RZA imports top East Coast lyrical mercenaries Kool G Rap and Jeru (plus Afu Ra) for some serious Shao-Lin spitting on "Cakes" and "East New York Stomp," and Suga Bang Bang's thick Caribbean patois makes the deliberate "Don't Test/Wu Stallion" appropriately hazy. Not that he needs any help, as "Samurai Showdown" offers conclusive proof that Bobby Digital's MC skills are at least equal to his considerable producing acumen. Augmenting the soundtrack's hardcore battle wisdom are several Whitaker-read passages from Tsunetomo Yamamoto's Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai. For anyone who thought the sun had set on the empire of the Wu, Ghost Dog is a bracing reminder that the 36 chambers are still cocked, loaded, and itching to fire, as razor-sharp and finely honed as a samurai's prize Bushido blade.