War, the legendary L.A. band will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their seminal album The World Is a Ghetto with a 5-LP box set. The set will include a newly remastered pressing of the album as well as behind-the-scenes recordings and unreleased bonus tracks.
Titled The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition includes a fully remastered pressing of the album. Additionally, the set features six newly unearthed, unreleased bonus tracks. According to American Songwriter, the highlight of the set is the collection of “making of” recordings, “that trace the entire evolution of the songs from first note to master take.”
Jerry Goldstein, the longtime producer for War, commented on the behind-the-scenes tracks of The World Is a Ghetto. “The nice part about all these ‘making of’ tracks is that the final take of all of these tracks is the actual final master that we used in The World Is a Ghetto, without edits, without overdubs, just raw,” he said in the release.
The album put War in a position to influence generations of musicians. Their blend of rock, soul, Latin, R&B, jazz, and psychedelia left its imprint on R&B as well as hip-hop. The list of artists who have sampled, covered, or mentioned War’s songs is long and impressive. They include Method Man, Janet Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, Willie Nelson, and many more.
