Various Artists - Coach Carter - CD

Hoops and hip-hop go together like pork ribs and barbecue sauce. You can hear subwoofers thumping from open hatchbacks at inner-city pickup games from New York to Chicago to St. Louis. And to Richmond, California, the gang-infested city north of Oakland that provides the setting for the movie Coach Carter.

And hip-hop makes a great soundtrack to Coach Carter, a film about a high school basketball coach who stresses academics over crossover dribble technique and zone defense -- much to the dismay of his star athletes.

Just as basketball players have to shoot, pass, guard, and rebound, the 14 tracks here have a range of skills: from radio-ready hip-hop to soulful R&B to street-wise rap that nods to the thug life that exists in the neighborhoods that feed Richmond High. You can imagine that this is music the young characters in the movie would be bangin' in their cars on their way home from practice. The highlights are too many to mention, because every track is a winner.

Southern-style St. Louis rapper Chingy captures the excitement of the game with the joint "Professional." On it, rapid-fire raps sizzle like electricity pulsing through a thumpy groove. And Grammy king Kanye West puts his Midas touch on "Wouldn't You Like To Ride," a danceable pop-savvy track with a monster vocal hook.

Perhaps the best rapping on the soundtrack is from Chicago gangsta Twista on the song "Hope," where Faith Evans sends it into the playoffs with a gospel-y hook.

Of course the heart of a high school jock belongs to the shorties as much as the game, and the soundtrack's R&B tracks give the disc another dimension. After the final buzzer, Van Hunt's "Your Love (Is The Greatest Drug I've Ever Known)" is the perfect make-out track. The cut has a devastating hook, and before it's done, the young crooner goes airborne like Michael Jordan for a Prince-like falsetto that makes the track a tender, soulful and frisky slam-dunk.

"Roll Wit' You" from Ciara out-Ashantis Ashanti and out-Beyonces Beyonce. Simply off the chain, the cut is from the perspective of the starry-eyed girlfriend -- or would-be girlfriend -- who's in the gymnasium risers watching the object of her affection going for a triple-double.

If you liked the movie, you'll love this soundtrack. Coach Carter: Music From the Motion Picture is one of the best and most complementary soundtracks to come out in a long time. The music here is as gripping and exciting as the game of basketball itself.

By Todd Spencer