Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai: The Album

1	Samurai Code Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:15
2	Strange Eyes / Sunz of Man 5:04
3	4 Sho Sho / North Star 4:43
4	Zip Code / The Black Nights 3:07
5	Samurai Code Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:17
6	Cakes / Kool G Rap 5:00
7	Samurai Code Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:17
8	Don't Test/Wu Stallion / Bang-Bang 5:18
9	Walking Through the Darkness / Tekitha 5:17
10	The Man / Superb 4:13
11	Samurai Code Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:14
12	Walk The Dogs / Royal Fam 4:04
13	Stay With Me / Melodie 3:23
14	East New York Stamp / Afu-Ra 2:04
15	Samurai Code Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:32
16	Fast Shadow / Wu-Tang Clan 3:02
17	Samurai Code Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:20
18	Samurai Showdown 3:59
19	Samurai Code Final Quote / Forest Whitaker 0:34

Barnes & Noble

The soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch's hit-man movie "Ghost Dog" is aimed straight at hip-hop heads and hearts -- it's the first full album the Wu-Tang Clan's mastermind, the RZA, has produced in well over a year. For the most part, it's the formal leap he's been promising during his time off -- creepy and deep, with tracks that turn hip-hop production standards on their ear. Surprisingly, the whole Clan appears only on one track (and Masta Killah on one more); the rest of the vocalists are a mix of Wu protégés (like Sunz of Man, whose "Strange Eyes" updates Cameo's funky sneer for the '00s), old-timers (Kool G Rap is lured out of retirement to rattle through "Cakes"), and unknowns, who contribute some of the best stuff here. Of the latter group, Tekitha's "Walking Through the Darkness" is straight R&B built on a splendid bit of guitar-overdub trickery, and Suga Bang Bang's toasting meltdown "Don't Test" is dancehall slowed to a molasses-thick trickle, with a disembodied moan looped and shoved right up to the front of the mix. GHOST DOG is a not-to-be-missed dream collaboration of vision and sound between two like-minded visionaries. Douglas Wolk

All Music Guide

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [Japanese Version] is prime RZA unlike the more widely available version of the soundtrack. The beats are stripped down and clean, each with a samurai twinge to them. The album stands alone very well not just as a DJ tool but for good hip-hop instrumentals. The quality of RZA's beats and the overall flow of the album really make it inexcusable that this version of the soundtrack wasn't more widely available. RZA's widely praised work on Kill Bill, Vol. 1 may be the reason the album is finally being made accessible outside of Japan. It also makes you wonder if post-Kill Bill this would be the official soundtrack to Ghost Dog. All of the instrumentals have the crisp funkiness that fans of Wu-Tang will be familiar with. RZA has always had a cinematic feel to his music, but it's only through the instrumentals that it can fully be appreciated. One of the few vocal tracks on the album, "Fast Shadow," features Wu-Tang Clan doing a freestyle. The rhymes fit the beat and flow, but the mixing of the song takes away from what would be a standout track on the album. Some of the vocals are distorted, but you can still hear Method Man flow and pause perfectly to the beat. RZA made great music for Ghost Dog, but it is too bad that so few people got to hear it. ~ Matt Whalley, All Music Guide