A pair of aspiring filmmakers working on a school project follow a group of up-and-coming teen hoopsters in Akron, OH, and just happen to capture the King (LeBron James) in his earliest days ruling his home city's courts. The resultant movie, More Than a Dream, released in 2009, is much more than that -- an inspiring Hoop Dreams-style reflection of the boundless drama in the true tale of young athletes in the inner city banding together to follow a dream (it's mere subtext that one of them would evolve into a larger-than-life icon by the time of the film's release). Street "basketball" and hip-hop date back to the music's earliest days (one of the first crossover hits was
Kurtis Blow's "Basketball"), and
Music Inspired by the Film More Than a Game features an all-star lineup of 2000s rap. The record hits a high point early on the six-minute epic "Forever," a convention of rap's wordsmiths as
Kanye West,
Drake,
Lil Wayne, and
Eminem pass the baton over a dark, soulful, slightly mournful beat, separated by an echoing modern R&B Auto-Tune hook. LeBron seems to bring out the best in the MCs as some of the best (
Jay-Z,
T.I.) bring their A game on what essentially is one of the world's glitziest mixtapes, while
Mary J. Blige adds a nice change of place early on with the soulful ballad "Stronger." ~ Jason Thurston