Rating:
Genre:
Soundtrack
Release Date: 09/29/2009
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, All Music Guide
;)
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