For a film that’s been subject to hotly discussed controversy, Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” has an accompanying score that is just as radical as the movie itself. In typical Korine shock-and-awe fashion, the “Spring Breakers” soundtrack is just as eclectic as the film’s cast, spring-break-gone-bad storyline and enigmatic director.
The soundtrack is the perfect score for the blatant and upending hedonism that Korine’s work is known for. The artists range from the once-omnipresent Skrillex to Gucci Mane to Ellie Goulding, with scoring handled by Cliff Martinez, the man responsible for the perfectly pared down, 2011 “Drive” soundtrack. Meek Mill, French Montana and Rick Ross’s “Big Bank” lends some serious street cred to the record, with Ross’ yawping, lumbering flow just as suitable for a pregame as it is for a gunfight.
And then there’s James Franco and Floridian rapper Dangeruss on “Hangin’ With da Dopeboys.” As if Franco, the UCLA professor and Academy Award nominee, didn’t have enough to his name, he drops a verse on the trap-heavy Dangeruss track that could make a number of rappers blush.
While Franco may not be the next Waka Flocka Flame, it’s hard to separate both his performance and Dangeruss’s flow from that of Riff Raff, the mega-viral rapper who was rumored to play Franco’s character, Alien, in the film prior to Franco coming onboard.
“Hangin’ With da Dopeboys” could just as easily be an early cut of Riff Raff’s, as Dangeruss sounds like a slightly rough version of a purposefully unpolished rapper. Dangeruss might have found his break while sounding as if he could eventually find a niche in the same wheelhouse as Gunplay, but only time will tell.
Yet as he did with “Drive,” Martinez’s scoring is the shining feature of the film. While his work has drawn comparisons to Johnny Jewel of art-house label, Italians Do It Better, whose own “Drive” soundtrack was snubbed in favor of Martinez’s, Martinez utilizes simple synth lines and ambient textures that have become his signature scoring style.
The dynamic between tracks like Waka Flocka Flame’s “Fuck This Industry” and Martinez’s work is a broad one, but like Korine’s directorial approach, this range is nothing but complementary to “Spring Breakers.” It’s erratic and radical, but if anything, the soundtrack is nothing but unadulterated fun for the spring break set.
-K.C. Libman is the arts and life editor. He can be reached at
arts@wildcat.arizona.edu.
