The soundtrack to the fourth The Fast and the Furious film is well in the tradition of the previous three, an inconsistent collection of street/club hybrids designed to make listeners feel like they're going to an opulent nightspot that just happens to be on the rough side of town.
Fast & Furious -- a confusing name for a sequel that's actually bettered by Malaysia's alternate title 4 Fast 4 Furious -- starts out well enough with the taste-making choice of Baltimore rapper
Rye Rye plus
M.I.A. on the
Blaqstarr-produced "Bang."
Busta Rhymes' macho "G-Stro" is good enough, but the
Kenna selection is an obscure surprise, coming off his slept-on
Make Sure They See My Face album and sounding like
Kanye West meets
Bootsy. "Blanco" and "Krazy," with
Lil Jon's ghetto-tech production, overshadow the other two
Pitbull tracks, although the Miami rapper's collaboration with
Robin Thicke features the priceless "Like
Barack bring some hope to this bad world/Go ahead you bad girl." While reggaeton master
Don Omar does fine on "Virtual Diva," the faceless Shark City Click cut and
Tasha's pointless
Madonna cover are textbook examples of filler. ~ David Jeffries