Wu-Tang Clan members RZA, Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna appear on the new soundtrack to slasher film Thriller. The album also includes RZA’s original score for the Dallas Jackson-directed project, which the rapper-producer also acted in and executive-produced.
RZA spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the movie, detailing how he juggled those various roles. “Dallas Jackson is actually a buddy of mine,” he says. “I met him some years ago, at [Quentin] Tarantino’s house. We became friends. We actually worked on a project together, a rewrite of Ghost Dog, and we became good friends. He had this project he was developing and he said he needed a producer to come onboard and help out. He had a horror [killer who was] a guy in a hoodie. It sounded cool to me. It was like, Oh [shit], that’s the new Jason, he’s wearing a [fucking] hood! So, I came on to help out, and as we started going through the process, [he] found more jobs for me to do!”
The Wu-Tang visionary noted that Jackson wanted a score that evokes John Carpenter, the iconic director/composer of horror film Halloween. “Dallas, he’s a fan of my Gravediggaz music,” he says. “He was like, ‘If you could go back into that mindset, I would love for you to score the film for me.’ I also love the Gravediggaz vibe that I had, and so I just went back to that mindset, and, inspired by John Carpenter’s great works over the years in the Seventies and Eighties, I was able to kind of deliver [it]. It maybe reminds me of what they call horror-core. I didn’t call it horror-core. It was coined horror-core by some journalists.”
The Thriller soundtrack, out now via 36 Chambers ALC, also features Earth, Hue Hef, the Hoodies and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s son Young Dirty Bastard.
In other RZA-in-the-movies news, the rap legend also appears among the all-star cast in Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming zombie-comedy The Dead Don’t Die opposite Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Danny Glover, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez and Steve Buscemi.
Thriller Soundtrack Track List
1. “Standing On The Frontline” (RZA, Reverend William Burke, Weather Park)
2. “Cant Change” (Weather Park)
3. “Chauncey Did It” (Hue Hef, Earth)
4. “Cold Revenge” (The Hoodies)
5. “I’m Innocent” (Cory Ironside, Don Prynce, Weather Park)
6. “I Wanna Know” (Dontius)
7. “Legendary Love” (Capadonna, Young Dirty Bastard, Hue Hef)
8. “Lock Your Doors” (Ghostface Killah, Harley, Hue Hef)
9. “You Don’t Know” (Young Dirty Bastard, Hue Hef, Weather Park)
10. “Hoochie Love” (Unique)
Bonus Score
11. “Thriller Main Theme” (RZA)
12. “I’m Going To Get You” (RZA)
13. “Thriller Main Theme B” (RZA)
14. “Fight For Your Life Finale” (RZA)
