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October 04, 1997
Dead Drummer Still Very Active
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) -- Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart
is beating the skins all over the big screen.
The veteran percussionist did the soundtrack to late rapper
Tupac Shakur's last movie "Gang Related," which opens
Wednesday.
Director Jim Kouf wanted a powerful, driving background force.
"Who better than the guy who'd created the album, 'Planet
Drum'?" Kouf said of Hart and his symphonic-sounding,
all-drum recording released in the early 1990s.
Since the Grateful Dead disbanded after guitarist Jerry
Garcia's death, Hart has toured with his own band and released a
solo album. "Gang Related" isn't his first soundtrack,
previous projects included the opening theme of the 1996
Olympics, a PBS series on philosopher Joseph Campbell and the
movie "Apocalypse Now."
Getting in synch musically with the dramatic tone of the
gritty crime drama took a little time, Hart said.
"Everything had a groove in this movie," Hart told
The Associated Press. "It had a certain overall rhythm to it
and I let it sink in for a while ... And then I took a swat at
it."
He never got to meet Shakur, who was shot to death in Las
Vegas last year.
"I thought he was a great artist," Hart said.
"He was certainly not only a product, but also a prophet, of
his generation and his environment. And he was just starting to
stretch out."
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