"I ain't no suit-wearin' businessman like you... you know I'm just a gangsta I suppose..."
This instrumental can be found here.
HBO's brilliant, critically acclaimed, and dreadfully underrated crime drama "The Wire" may be over and gone, but at least before then the good sense of HBO was finally put forward in releasing a soundtrack album to the beloved series. The same grit, determination and reality of the Baltimore souls comes through in spades. For those of you that aren't familiar with the TV show, let me just say that i consider it the greatest show ever. Pure perfection in terms of writing, acting, direction and - of course - featured music. The story unfolds in Baltimore and is a study on the effect of institutions on its members: police, politicians, criminals and addicts. Not the usual cops vs bad guys fare with episodic ups and downs, "The Wire" is one long drama about people which happens in a law enforcement and crime setting. For realists only, this series will require some viewer patience while the complexities of the plot and the characters are developed. If it interests you, you can watch it by clicking here. Also, in this amazing blog you will find some excellent reviews of each episode in double format; one for those who have already watched the whole series (veterans) and one for those who don't want any spoilers (newbies). His level of deepness is sick, definitely a must for fans of the show.
As far as the soundtrack's concerned, there are 35 tracks on the disc. From the four different versions of Tom Wait's "Way Down in the Hole" to the Hip-Hop tracks bangin' in Stinkums' car in the low rises, this is an absolute must-have for every fan of the best television show ever made. To this point, it seems like a small introduction to the show is due.
- Ayo what's up playboy? How come you wearin' that suit, B? For real its 85 fuckin' degrees out here and you try'na be like fuckin' Pat Riley.
- Look the part, be the part, motherfucker!
- Nigger please. You walking around with a fake fuckin’ clipboard. You can’t even read a playbook. Be for real. You bunch of bitches!
Season One is focused on the police and the drug trade. One of the unique aspects of the show is that, rather than having a crime each week, each episode is just a chapter in a single, season-long case for the Baltimore police Major Crimes Unit. Thus, the viewer sees in great detail the political wrangling on either side of the drug war, as financial constraints, personal vendettas and career opportunism get in the way of the guys just trying to do their jobs - whether those jobs are maintaining law and order or keeping up a steady supply of heroin to Baltimore's numerous "fiends".The show's scope broadens from the street corners to show how all parts of Baltimore - and by extension every US city - are complicit in the social machine that keeps the drug trade alive and buoyant.
- Yeah, that's Bird's gun, the 380...
- You've seen it before?
- Bird always flashing that thing.
- So you'd actually seen it before the day in question...And on the day in question?
- It was in Bird's hand...
- When he shot at Mr. Gant?
- Yes, ma'am. Bird covet them shiny little pistols!
- Objection, Your Honor!
- And the boy too trifling to throw it offeven after a daytime murder!
- You're a lying cocksucker, man. I'll rip your heart out your goddamn chest!
Season Two moves to the ailing Baltimore docks and their uneasy racial balance of power, as dock manager Frank Sobotka discovers the price for taking money from organized crime - even if he's only doing it to keep the docks from dying.
- I knew you'd come back.
- I trust you didn't lose sleep over it.
- Worryin' about you would be like wonderin' if the sun's gonna come up...I ain't about to wild out over it.
- I see you favor a 45.
- Tonight I do. And I keeps one in the chamber, in case you ponderin'...Nice show piece you got there.
- Walther PPK 380, double action.. Hear them waltherslike to jump some. As will you, with one in your elbow.
- That gun ain't got enough firepower to make my joint useless. It definitely won't stop mefrom emptyin' out half my mag.
- You might not hit me...
- This range ?And this caliber? Even if I miss, I can't miss!
Season Three returns to the streets of Baltimore, but also looks at the city's politicians, in particular up-and-coming mayoral hopeful Tommy Carcetti as he plays all sides to get into a position of power. Thus, the season is able to show how street-level policing is dependent on the whims of those higher up the food chain and examine the issue of reform.
- Are you contracting, or just doing some work around the house?
- No, we work all over.
- Full time?
- No, we had about five jobs last month.
- Ah. With that rate, the cost of the powder-actuated guns justifies itself.
- You say "power"?
- Powder.
- Like gunpowder?
- Yeah. The DX 460 is fully automatic,with a 27-caliber charge. Wood, concrete,steel to steel- she'll throw a fastener into anything. And for my money, she handles recoil better than the Simpson or the P3500. Not large ballistically, but for driving nails, it's enough. Any more than that, you'd add to the recoil.
- Man, shit. I seen a tiny-ass 22 round-nose drop a nigga plenty of days, man. Motherfuckers get upin you like a pinball, rip your ass up. Big joints though, big joints man just break your bones, you say, "Fuck it." I'm gonna go with this right here, man. How much I owe you?
- $669 plus tax. You just pay at the register.
- Nah, man, you go ahead and handle that for me, man. And keep the rest for your time.
- This is $800!
- So what, man? You earned that buck like a motherfucker. Keep that shit!
Season Four is about education and continues to show Carcetti's rise as he runs for mayor, but a large chunk of the air time now also focuses on four young friends: Dukie, an impoverished son of junkies, Michael, a troubled victim of abuse who looks out for his younger brother, Namond, born into junk-dealing family, and Randy, a small-time huckster just trying to get by. These four youths find themselves equally attracted and repelled by the opportunities and dangers of Baltimore's drug trade.
- Omar say what?
- Nuthin'...
- Omar tried callin' you out by name.
- But, shit, it wadn't nothin'...
- What he say about me?
- Nuthin', man. Just talkin' shit...
- He use my name?
- In the street?
- ...
- Talk, motherfucker!
- He just, ya know... Say that you need to step to and that...I dunno, he just runnin' his mouth some...
- He call me a punk?
- It was bullshit, man...You ain't need that on your mind.
- What the fuck you know about what I need on my mind, motherfucker? My name was on the street? When we bounce from this shit here, y'all gonna go down to them corners, let them people know. Word did not get back to me. Let 'em know Marlo step to any motherfucker, Omar, Barksdale...Whoever. My name is my name!
The Fifth and final season wraps up the stories of everyone that has been featured in the show thus far, while introducing a new set of characters, a series of reporters working for The Baltimore Sun, a newspaper that is constantly suffering cutbacks and buy-outs as the experienced old guard are replaced with naïve new reporters. Two such reporters subsequently become involved in a scam by one of the MCU's detectives to bring down new drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield.
With the rotating focus every season, the show is anchored by the police officer characters and the often ignored power struggles that go on within major city police department. The rank and file detectives and patrol officers are often portrayed as helpless pawns of their superiors, who are more concerned with their own petty vendettas and personal ambitions than the city and its citizens. Detectives regularly find their investigations spiked the moment they start to become a financial burden for the department or threaten the status quo.
Counterbalancing the police are the city's drug dealers, who range from the the ruthless Marlo Stanfield and Avon Barksdale, to the more affable "Proposition Joe" and ambitious social climber Stringer Bell. Also in the mix is Omar Little, a deadly Robin Hood-like figure who robs drug dealers, the drug-addicted police informant "Bubbles", and the mysterious European crime lord known as "The Greek", who supplies both drugs and prostitutes to the city of Baltimore.
The Wire is rife with social commentary and the liberal political views of show creators Simon and Norris. The most overt theme of the series is the notion that the "War on Drugs" is a complete and total failure in its current form of "lock up the drug dealers and throw away the key" logic. In addition, there is the more nihilistic notion that the institutions that make up the American way of life are irreversibly corrupt, and that it is impossible to reform them. To try to reform them is to be crushed by the system.
Although the series has been critically acclaimed, The Wire never managed to earn anything more than a small but extremely devoted following. In 2005, a drug gang in Queens was arrested, whose leaders admitted using disposable cellphones and other tricks they learned from the show! Also, Ed Burns was a policeman for 20 years and David Simon a police journalist for 13 years, so you can rest assured that both institutions are realistically depicted in the series - maybe too realistic I might add. Ex junkies, mayors, police commissioners, journalists and criminologists all contributed one way or another to make it extra practical. Simply put this is not for everyone. It's cynical and Shakespearic, more like a 13-hour film, or a 13-chapter novel, that grows steadily more engrossing as it unfolds. By doing so it transcends the usual, mundane themes most TV Shows have to offer and really shows something you haven't seen before. If your taste has not been completely destroyed by the goofy stuff TV shows nowadays, you will embrace this gift to make your minds wiser and your hearts tender.
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