RZA and composer Tyler Bates have delivered the original motion picture score to ‘RZA’s One Spoon of Chocolate’, arriving May 1 on all digital platforms via Gravel and Echo Recordings. A limited 180-gram vinyl edition signed by both RZA and Bates is available now through Gravel and Echo Recordings.
The score lands alongside the film itself, also releasing May 1, and it holds up as a powerful standalone listen. Written together by RZA and Bates, it moves from bone-crushing percussive force to deeply emotive compositions, navigating grief, love, rage, and despair across a cinematic range that mirrors the film’s grindhouse intensity. It’s the kind of score that doesn’t just serve the picture, it expands it.
“The collision of violence and raw emotion is the space I find most compelling as a composer and songwriter,” Bates says. “The ‘RZA’s One Spoon of Chocolate’ is an intersection of love and hate, setting the stage for a brutally primal musical approach to serving the film and its characters. Collaborating with the RZA was among the most gratifying of my career.”
The film follows Unique (Shameik Moore), an Army veteran falsely accused of assault who, newly paroled and relocated to the town of Karensville, Ohio, uncovers a racist sheriff and his deputies running a violent operation tied to the disappearance of young Black men. When they target Unique, they trigger a relentless chain of vengeance with explosive consequences. Blair Underwood and RJ Cyler co-star.
Quentin Tarantino, who presents the film, doesn’t hold back. “As a filmmaker, RZA really brought home the bacon on an old-school, foot-to-ass, Revenge-a-matic,” he says. “This picture drives audiences wild wherever it screens. We’ll sell you a whole seat, but you’ll only use the edge of it.” The score and the film hit together on May 1. Both are essential.