It seems like every aspect of NBA 2K9 has been analyzed to death -- except the soundtrack. And since it's the time of year when many of the big-time musicians drop their soundtracks, it is only fitting that we take a look at the soundtrack as well.

Passionate hip-hop fans are always on the hunt to find fresh and new music by underground artists. It is like a lifelong journey of epic proportions to find music that hits the spot like good home cooking. It is difficult to find, but when the classics arrive, we keep them in the rotation for years. The sounds resonate in our minds and souls, bringing us back in time.

We look for the quality that you cannot hear on the radio during rotations that play top singles to death. We are not looking for some club hits that get old after five plays either, you hear me T-Pain? Real hip-hop fans search for artistic, expressive and inventive elements in their music.

December is the month when all the biggest names in music drop their albums -- just in time for the holiday season. So, this is a good opportunity to review the musical tones of NBA 2K9 while making some quick recommendations for some quality beats hip-hop fans should definitely check out.

2K Beats in NBA 2K9 title provide basketball fans and hip-hop fans alike with a unique fuse of old-school rap and new-school music that could potentially provide you with some quality MP3s for your iPods. Does the soundtrack work? I think so. But as with any soundtrack, there are the gems, and then there are rest that try to be.

The Soundtrack

The music laid out by old-school artists in NBA 2K9 can open doors to new music genres that game players would not normally be exposed to -- especially younger generations. For example, the in-your-face rap by the Beastie Boys in NBA 2K9 traces us back to the roots of hip-hop and rap’s Genesis.

Some of the music that works on the soundtrack of NBA 2K9 are songs by the Beastie Boys, Gnarles Barkley, N.E.R.D., The Cool Kids and The Pharcyde. These tracks are enough to keep the soundtrack from being less than stellar or unbearable. Do they resonate in our hearts and minds? Not really, but they are pretty cool.

In "Passing Me By" by The Pharcyde, listeners can hear the smooth, jazzy hip-hop elements from the mid-1990s. Bridging the gap from The Pharcyde to today’s keyboard, synthesized-based hip-hop, Pharrell and N.E.R.D. make an appearance with the track off their latest album, entitled Spaz. Spaz is an alternative approach to hip-hop with multiple instruments fused into one song from the musical genius: producer Pharrell and company.

Numbers such as The Meters’ Cissy Strut, Skeewiff’s Light the Future and Nicodemus’ Funky in the Middle bring a Will Ferrell Semi-Pro feel to the game. All we need is the short shorts and Afros. Tune into Get The Funk Out Of My Face by Jackie Moon and get ready to love these throwbacks to the '70s.

This brings me to The Heavy’s number, entitled Coleen. It is a new-school beat with thumping, city-street bass with a funky '70s vocal. Not a bad track at all. It may actually prompt you to right-stick click on them to view their biography.

Gnarles Barkley makes an appearance as part of as a two-man hip-hop band; he has created a snappy uptempo song. Cee-Lo lays down his vocals on the hook, delivering with rhythm and nailing every line throughout his two verses on the track Going On. The break point is a nice touch, and this song gives NBA 2K9 a strong ambiance, especially for highlight videos.

Recommendations

The NBA 2K9 soundtrack is not going to win any awards, but it does deliver some nice elements of funk to the game. There are some questionable artists and tracks that just do not mix with the game of basketball, which keeps this soundtrack from truly being a quality body of work.

The lack of soundtrack customization is questionable since most sports titles released over the past two years have featured great customization with in-game menu music and stadium sounds. Also, the NBA is becoming an international melting pot with athletes from all over the world excelling in the NBA. A title like FIFA has a great mixture of international music in it, and I think it is time the NBA was viewed as a global league and followed the same musical diversity. There are not any international themes or foreign languages in the game, which would have been a nice approach.

Also, Outkast would have complimented the old-school, new-school sound 2K Beats is attempting to achieve. While 2K does a decent job mixing the funk elements into contemporary rap, some songs just don’t belong on this soundtrack, and an Andre 3000 appearance would have served this soundtrack well.

Final Thoughts

Next time you are looking for some new beats to download, give some of these 2K Beats artists a shot. You might discover some pleasurable ear-bud bumping while browsing though some new musical genres. Perhaps the music will throw you back into the origins of rap and hip-hop.

Overall Grade

3 Stars ***

For some of the latest and best hip-hop not present in NBA 2K9, I recommend the following songs and artists to upload to your hard drives, MP3 players and iPods for in-game action:

Common – Universal Mind Control, Announcement, Inhale
Ludacris – Undisputed, Press the Start Button
Jay-Z – BK Anthem, Lost part 2
Murs – I’m Innocent
Andre 3000 – Da Art of Storytelling Part 4