![]() Between the harmonies of Boyz II Men and the rollicking swing of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis as well as Teddy Riley. Between my native Jamaica and my new home in New York. How it could ground you in meaning in a life between two lives. Four years later, I was a child in love with love. My mother took that deal, as many Caribbean mothers did, and I ended up on a plane to the United States from my native Jamaica. Soon the nation reached down into its colonial holdings and offered a sweetheart deal to those who heeded and had luck: an H1-B visa and safe passage for your immediate family in exchange for labor. In the ‘70s and ‘80s the United States was experiencing an intense nursing shortage. It was a magnanimous time, though fraught, and neo-black aesthetic essentialism was about to enter the mainstream. All the while drug wars raged, the spectre of HIV decimated the black community, and corporate militarism ran amok. It was a decade after we found ourselves awash in a burgeoning artistic moment that aimed to disrupt blanket notions of race and class. My own history is a byproduct of the socioeconomic tailwinds in which Boomerang was created. It entered the Billboard 200 chart at number eight, before reaching its pole position at number four. On a budget of $42 million, it cashed in at $132 million worldwide with over $70 million in domestic receipts. The film was a box-office hit for Murphy. And of course, Boomerang became a breakout moment for budding star, Halle Berry. Those heavy hitters were backed by Chris Rock and Tisha Campbell. He was buttressed by some of the premiere comedic talent of the time. “I was frustrated that he had never had a cast that supported him comedically in the way that he deserved." Boomerang gave Murphy just that. “In some ways it was a dream, it was ideal,” Hudlin says of working with the iconic comedian. The film was an early whiff of things to come, perhaps not just for black romantic comedies, but for our lives.īoomerang dropped in 1992 and was helmed by Reginald Hudlin, a Harvard educated satirist and director whose work included House Party and who would go on to become president of BET. The film and the soundtrack represented - along with soundtracks for other '90s films like the Tommy Davidson driven Strictly Business and the black-kid rite of passage soundtrack Waiting to Exhale- the introduction of a bourgeoise black urban middle class to a milieu of audiences. It also peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. Spun together by the unstoppable early '90s crew of Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Daryl Simmons, and Antonio “L.A.” Reid, the Boomerang soundtrack has become a time capsule of sounds that seem ancient now: New Jack Swing, the husky contralto of Toni Braxton, the sentimentality of black boy-band R&B from the likes of Boyz II Men, and the otherworldly beauty of P.M. Meanwhile, despite me being only about a decade older than the soundtrack myself, and despite me having to sneak watch the film on VHS after my parents went to sleep as a kid, both works have stuck to my bones, giving me comfort and nostalgia I likely don’t deserve. Word To The Mutha Podcast: Ep.Google tells me the soundtrack to the masterful, classic ‘90s film Boomerang was constructed in a mere two months. Support The Vault Classic Music Review on Buy Me A CoffeeĪlbumism: 100 Greatest Soundtracks of All-Time-Boomerang Visit The Vault Classic Music Reviews Online Visit Charlee D and the Word To The Mutha Podcast! The soundtrack featured a few classic singles: the mega hit by Boyz II Men "End Of The Road", which broke a Billboard Hot 100 record for consecutive weeks at #1, "Love Should Have Brought You Home Last Night" by Toni Braxton, and "I'd Die Without You" by hip-hop/R&B group PM Dawn. The album was executive produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Antonio "LA" Reid and featured contributions from artist such as Boyz II Men, PM Dawn, Johnny Gill, TLC, A Tribe Called Quest and the introduction to an artist the public would be very familiar with over the coming years - Toni Braxton. The film was accompanied by an equally powerful all-star soundtrack released on LaFace Records. The film starring an all-star cast of Eddie Murphy, Halle Berry, Robin Givens, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock and the late Eartha Kitt and John Witherspoon, was a huge hit grossing over $160 million in the summer of the 1992. Cox welcomes back in Charlee D of the Word To The Mutha Podcast to the show to review the original soundtrack to the black romantic comedy Boomerang. ![]()
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