(March 2, 2019) Actually, Spike Lee has both now…the Oscar and the Jams!
This article celebrates Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee by ranking the 20 best songs that were featured in or written specifically for his movies.
Spike Lee has been creating films for more than three decades now, including classics like Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing, plus cult faves like School Daze, Mo’ Better Blues, Crooklyn and Get On The Bus.
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And now Lee, who is mostly seen these days court-side at New York Knicks basketball games, is back in the movie industry’s spotlight once again.
He received his first Oscar award this past week in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2018 movie BlacKkKlansman, the adapted story of how Colorado Springs police officer Ron Stallworth infiltrated the local Ku Klux Klan chapter in the 1970s.
But it wasn’t the award Spike really wanted. The highly acclaimed film was also up for Best Picture, which it lost to Green Book, another “true-story” film, but one that has received its share of criticism since it won the award.
Spike himself was visibly disgusted when the winner was announced last Sunday, and he quickly denounced the decision, saying he thought “the ref made a bad call,” something he probably knows a thing or two about given his lifetime pass at N.Y. Knickerbocker games.
Yet it wasn’t the first time Spike was snubbed in the Best Picture category by a feel-good film about a black-white, driver-passenger relationship in the racially tense south. In 1990, the movie that was arguably his best, Do The Right Thing, was not even nominated and the award went to Driving Miss Daisy, a film in which a black chauffeur drove an older Jewish woman around in Atlanta and ultimately formed a bond despite their inherent cultural differences.
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The script was flipped this time, with Green Book exploring the relationship between the renowned black musician Dr. Don Shirley who was driven around in the Deep South by his white chauffeur (Tony Lip), himself dealing with his own racist views.
This deja-vu Oscar snubbing was intensified by the fact that Spike himself has made a film or two that focused on race relations in America, although his were rarely set in the Deep South. Instead, they mostly took place in places north like his hometown of Brooklyn or even Chicago.
Many folks – well, maybe except Donald Trump (who recently called Spike a racist…what!?!) and his followers – were pulling for Lee this year, if for no other reason than the fact that he’s been in the game for so long. He’s directed more than two dozen feature-films since 1986’s She’s Gotta Have It, and, for whatever reasons, it’s not often his flicks are recognized by the Academy (admittedly, some of his more recent movies haven’t been among his best).
Others have taken a more agnostic approach to Spike winning an Oscar, saying that it’s not necessary for black directors and actors to get their validation from an institution that has historically overlooked people of color.
In the end, diversity was well represented at this year’s Oscars, but Spike Lee was once again left out in the cold for the biggest award, while losing for a second time to a film about race relations told from a non-black perspective.
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Regardless of where one stands on Spike Lee’s films or their Oscar-worthiness, one thing is certain about them: Spike Lee Joints just wouldn’t be “Joints” without the music.
Nearly every one of his movies have been represented by a dope-ass soundtrack with songs that are integral, heck even crucial, to the storylines. The music in Spike Lee’s films has been expertly woven into the movies’ fabric, and the renowned director has rarely missed when it comes to picking the right songs for the right moments in the right films.
Whether it was the opening credits to his best movie, Do The Right Thing, or the closing ones to his most recent, BlacKkKlansman, Spike and his music supervisors have always had an ear for the perfect jams to set the tone for the drama we’ve watched unfold.
It is with that in mind that djrobblog takes a look back at Spike Lee’s top 20 best musical joints and counts them down from #20 to #1. It’s a celebration of his most recent (small) victory, but more importantly, his continuing legacy as Black History Month 2019 concludes.
Please scroll through the countdown of Spike Lee’s best movie songs below and enjoy!
DJRob is a freelance blogger who covers R&B, hip-hop, pop and rock genres and lots of music news and current stuff. You can follow him on Twitter @djrobblog.
Djrob, this is one of your all time greatest blogs!! Thank you for the great music and memories. Keep it coming!
Thanks, Twana! ?