Original Soundtrack - Brown Sugar / O.S.T. (CD)

All Music Guide

The soundtrack album to the 2002 film about a hip-hop-centered romance has 15 songs by a wide variety of the music's veterans and more recently emerged talents. Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, and Eric B. Rakim are some of the better-known contributors on a compilation that mixes neo-soul and harder hip-hop styles. In the neo-soul bag, there's Jill Scott, whose romantic "Easy Conversation" is one of the better selections. Jazz/RB crossover singer Cassandra Wilson covers Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," while the Roots offer some of the harder beats and scratching on the remix of "Act Too (Love of My Life)." On the whole it's an adequate sampler of some early 21st century hip-hop sounds, leaning toward the more pop-accessible segment of the genre.

- Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide