Fast & Furious Soundtrack (CD)

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. [Fast & Furious was also made available in a clean version with all explicit material removed.] ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide