AMERICAN GANGSTER SOUNDTRACK ALBUM TO BE RELEASED NOVEMBER 6 BY ISLAND DEF JAM MUSIC GROUP

            Already on the short list as one of the most hotly anticipated films of fall 2007, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s upcoming cinematic event AMERICAN GANGSTER opens on November 2.  The film teams Oscar® winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe to tell the true story of criminal mastermind Frank Lucas, who came up from the streets of New York in the ’70s.  It is produced by Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer and directed and produced by Ridley Scott.

             On Tuesday, November 6, the Island Def Jam Music Group will release the AMERICAN GANGSTER original motion picture soundtrack album.  Impacting at Urban AC radio on October 1^st will be the first single and opening track, “Do You Feel Me,” composed by mega-platinum Grammy-winning and Oscar®-nominated songwriter Diane Warren, and performed by six-time Grammy-nominated platinum artist Anthony Hamilton. 

             In addition to Hamilton, the AMERICAN GANGSTER album features classic blues, R&B, soul and hip-hop tracks from Lowell Fulson, John Lee Hooker, Bobby Womack, Sam & Dave, the Staple Singers, and Public Enemy, plus new cuts by composer Marc Streitenfeld and by DJ-turned-producer Hank Shocklee, who was extensively involved with the project. 

             In addition to the four original pieces that Shocklee co-wrote and produced under his own name, he also produced both new tracks by Anthony Hamilton (the single “Do You Feel Me” and “Stone Cold”) as well as Public Enemy’s Def Jam classic of 1991, “Can’t Truss It.”  As a member of the original Bomb Squad production team (with his brother Keith, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, and Eric ‘Vietnam’ Sadler) Shocklee was at the boards for some of rap and hip-hop’s greatest Def Jam releases by Public Enemy, LL Cool J, 3^rd Bass, EPMD, Slick Rick, Alyson Williams, and others; as well as records by such varied names as Run-DMC, Sinéad O’Connor, Bell Biv Devoe, Peter Gabriel, Ice Cube, and Yoko Ono.

             The final album sequence is: 1. Do You Feel Me (Anthony Hamilton) * 2. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? (Lowell Fulson) * 3. No Shoes (John Lee Hooker) * 4. Across 110th Street (Bobby Womack) * 5. Stone, Cold (Anthony Hamilton) * 6. Hold On I’m Comin’ (Sam & Dave) * 7. I’ll Take You There (the Staple Singers) * 8. Can’t Truss It (Public Enemy) * 9 Checkin’ Up On My Baby (Hank Shocklee) * 10. Club Jam (Hank Shocklee) * 11. Railroad (Hank Shocklee) * 12. Nicky Barnes (Hank Shocklee) * 13. Hundred Percent Pure (Marc Streitenfeld) * 14. Frank Lucas (Marc Streitenfeld).

 About the Film

Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer, Steven Zaillian and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in AMERICAN GANGSTER.  Washington stars as Frank Lucas, a courageous entrepreneur and self-made embodiment of the American Dream who comes from nowhere to rule the inner-city drug trade, and Crowe is Richie Roberts, an outcast cop zeroing in on who is outplaying all the familiar Mafia families as he closes in on this unexpected new streetwise player.

Contact: Laura Swanson, 212.333.8533
email: Laura.Swanson@umusic.com