by William RuhlmannMatthew Knowles, father of Beyoncé Knowles and manager of her group, Destiny's Child, through his Music World Management company, clearly has ambitions for his daughter that extend beyond making Destiny's Child the most popular group of the early 21st century. His plan became apparent only a week after the release of Destiny's Child's Survivor album, when his daughter starred in an MTV production of Carmen, with the 1875 Bizet opera stripped of all but its storyline and turned into a contemporary rap musical. Oscar Hammerstein II was the first one to imagine Carmen in a modern context with African-Americans, but his 1943 Broadway musical Carmen Jones retained Bizet's music with English lyrics. The new Carmen is the brainchild of Kip Collins and Sekani Williams, who have employed a few synthesized string elements, but otherwise dropped any sense of the original. It is certainly an ambitious idea to try to use rap for a sustained musical story, but Collins and Williams show that the form doesn't quite support such a concept, at least in their hands. The music is at its best in tracks like The Last Great Seduction, when Knowles and co-star Mekhi Phifer are trading insults, but elsewhere, such as in What We Gonna Do, performed by Rah Digga, the clipped-out obscenities render this clean version largely incomprehensible. (You'd have thought that, knowing the film was going to be broadcast on TV, the writers would have curbed their language beforehand.) Actually, there isn't all that much music here. The album runs less than 35 minutes, and that includes remixes of the Destiny's Child hits Survivor and Bootylicious. Maybe rap will turn out to be a vehicle for sustained storytelling someday, but this attempt is barely a vehicle for Beyoncé Knowles' and her father's ambitions. 美国MTV电视网首度自制嘻哈音乐剧电影－天命真女合唱团主唱Beyonce Knowles独挑大梁，业界菁英Wyclef Jean、Busta Rhymes、Da Brat、Mos De等共襄盛举。乐风巧妙结合Pop、R&B、Hip Hop的Destiny's Chid，以特有的音乐表现与整体形象风靡全球，更使Beyonce的才貌双全受到注目，而被业界公认最有资格被加冕为嘻哈音乐女王，在这部音乐剧电影中尽情发挥她无比的唱功与个人魅力，因此在全国MTV电视网播出之时创下有史以来的超高收视率。台湾的歌迷无论你是喜欢Destiny's Chid或是爱听R&B\u002FHip Hop一族的族群，虽然无法看到这部电影但可从原声带中响叮当的阵容，聆听到精采的曲目安排，包括：Destiny's Chid的排行亚军单曲『Survival』在与饶舌头号魔女Da Brat碰撞后转为另有风情的饶舌版Destiny's Chid与Missy Misdemeanor Elliott齐力打造「Bootylicious」饶富趣味的混音版；Beyonce与唱作鬼才Wyclef Jean的美女野兽柔情合鸣「Cards Never Lie」；Beyonce与东岸饶舌猛将Ms□Def剑拔弩张的对峙曲「If Looks Could Kill」等。