Straight outta Hunters Point, reminiscent of L.A.'s infamous Bangin' on Wax series of a few years back, includes representatives from both Westmob and Big Block, the two warring H.P. hoods. And while New York thug rappers air their beefs over mix tapes and vinyl, in Hunters Point shit gets way more hectic than Jay-Z's most graphic dis. "You better ride or die," Frank Nitty of Code Assassins yells on "I'm a Ridah," a track that turned out to be sadly prophetic: before the soundtrack's release the rapper was cut down in a hail of bullets.

SOHP's 18 songs – all by H.P.-affiliated artists – are filled with more street knowledge than the Department of Public Works. Although the various hustlas and ridahs loudly proclaim their willingness to utilize what one song calls savage tactics, the soundtrack resonates with emotional poignancy. The music, made by a host of producers (including For Play, Black C, and Mr. Laid and Chill Black), isn't as cheerful as, say, the average radio single. Still, the beats, which contain cavernous bass and some utterly infectious keyboard squiggles, fit the mood of the lyrics – which range from somber to angry to vengeful – well.

"I can't seem to get enough of it / Livin' this ghetto life," hood crooner Big Mack explains. Gravelly-voiced thug Baby Finsta proudly states, "I mash for my dreams / Doing things you don't do." But ghetto fabulousness is not without cost. "Mama used to hit me with brooms but now she patching up my bullet wounds / Daddy upstate in a Federal pen / All I hear is shorty wanna be a thug again," Herm's Odd Couple relate. The album's illest track, however, could be T-Kash and Too Incognito's "Victim of da Rap Game," which manages to be both gangsta and conscious. The song opens with a TV news anchor's voice describing S.F.'s "rap wars," before "reporting," "I'm a victim of the system ... I can't get out of where I'm at because I'm young and black."