Fresh (1994) – Best Hip-Hop Movie Soundtracks

Writer-director Boaz Yakin’s debut offers an incredibly powerful portrait of a child being forced to grow up before he’s ready, but the film’s soundtrack captures an important moment between the past and what would become the future of hip-hop. The disc is filled mostly with old-school classics – Whodini’s 'Freaks Come Out At Night,' Fearless Four’s 'Rockin’ It,' Spoonie Gee’s amazing 'Spoonin’ Rap.' But the first three tracks are culled from different Wu-Tang releases from that time: Genius’s 'I Gotcha Back,' Raekwon’s 'Heaven & Hell' and Wu-Tang’s elegiac 'Can It All Be So Simple,' all of which highlight the emotional, often unforgiving power of hip-hop at a moment when it navigated a precipice between in-the-streets honesty and on-the-radio appeal.