The 7 Best Soundtracks to Underwhelming Films, Ranked

7. Strictly Business

Aside from serving as one of Halle Berry’s earliest film roles, this forgettable ’90s relic helped to usher in Mary J. Blige (“You Remind Me”). Its soundtrack also features Heavy D and the forever-classic Jeff Redd joint “You Called and Told Me.” Ask your uncle who thinks he’s not an uncle.

6. High School High

While we’re in support of dunking on the popular mid-1990s White savior trope, this cinema spoof sucked. But its companion LP plays like a Black music block party set in 1996, with a D’Angelo and Erykah Badu duet, a couple of Wu joints, Faith, Kim, Roots, Tribe, De La, and many others in attendance.

5. Judgment Night: Music From the Motion Picture

If nothing else, this meh thriller is notable for inspiring a harmonious hip-hop and rock mashup (see: collabs between Onyx and Biohazard, Ice-T and Slayer, Cypress Hill and Pearl Jam) — a concept that Jay-Z and Linkin Park fumbled one decade later.

4. Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack

Uniting the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Burna Boy, and Ms. Lauryn Hill herself, this compilation album is a soothing complement to the trauma porn that Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith live out on screen.

3. Glitter

Mariah Carey’s first starring movie role was panned for a cliché script and limp acting. Yet while the music icon lacked the range on screen, the film’s accompanying retro-inspired soundtrack has been hailed in the years following its initially slept-on 2001 release.

2. Street Fighter

The Hollywood adaptation of ’80s babies’ favorite fighting-game franchise was a letdown for gamers and cinephiles alike. But gems like LL Cool J’s “Life As…” and Nas’ deep cut “One on One” — not to mention the underground-icon posse standout “Come Widdit”— help the soundtrack’s sonics boom, word to Jean-Claude.

1. Killa Season

Shoddy cinematography. More plot holes than Harlem has potholes. That scene. Killa Season is a laughably low-budget, straight-to-DVD hustler flick. Cam’ron’s fifth solo album of the same name, however, gave hip-hop a formidable Jay-Z diss, the hilariously lewd Lil Wayne collab “Touch It or Not,” and what’s likely the first (only?) song about irritable bowel syndrome. Killa!