Fifty years ago this month, Isaac Hayes changed the course of movie music with his score for “Shaft.” Not only did Hayes, 29 at the time, become the first Black man to win a music Oscar for his title song, but the success of his two-lp soundtrack album assured that every Black action-adventure film for the next several years would be scored by a major artist of color.
“It was the achievement of his life,” says his son, Isaac Hayes III, “coming from poverty the way that he did, and the struggles that he had. ‘Shaft’ was something otherworldly for a kid from Memphis, Tennessee, that picked cotton, worked in a hog factory and got all the way to the Academy Awards. As a Black man, in 1971, it was incredible.”
“Shaft” came during changing times for movie music — it followed successful pop and rock soundtrack albums for “The Graduate” and “Easy Rider...
“It was the achievement of his life,” says his son, Isaac Hayes III, “coming from poverty the way that he did, and the struggles that he had. ‘Shaft’ was something otherworldly for a kid from Memphis, Tennessee, that picked cotton, worked in a hog factory and got all the way to the Academy Awards. As a Black man, in 1971, it was incredible.”
“Shaft” came during changing times for movie music — it followed successful pop and rock soundtrack albums for “The Graduate” and “Easy Rider...
- 6/25/2021
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Motivational speaker and philanthropist Kym Feltus has announced the launch of what is bound to be the premier virtual women’s empowerment event of the year!
To be co-hosted by actress Vivica A. Fox, this four hour workshop happening on Saturday, May 15, 2021, is anticipated to be the empowerment event of the year! Other special guests will include Eva Marcille (Rhoa), Tyler Lepley (P-Valley on Starz/Tyler Perry’s The Have and Have Nots), Trina Braxton (Braxton Family Values), Vincent Velazquez (TV One’s Atl Homicide), Hill Harper (The Good Doctor), Isaac Hayes III (Estate Manager and Son of Isaac Hayes), Micah Stampley (gospel recording artist), and more! There will also be special virtual performances from, “The Southern Hummingbird”, Tweet, “The Prince of Praise”, Byron Cage, and Dorinda Clark Cole of the legendary gospel group, The Clark Sisters.
The event will be held virtually using the platform “Hopin”. There will be multiple stages,...
To be co-hosted by actress Vivica A. Fox, this four hour workshop happening on Saturday, May 15, 2021, is anticipated to be the empowerment event of the year! Other special guests will include Eva Marcille (Rhoa), Tyler Lepley (P-Valley on Starz/Tyler Perry’s The Have and Have Nots), Trina Braxton (Braxton Family Values), Vincent Velazquez (TV One’s Atl Homicide), Hill Harper (The Good Doctor), Isaac Hayes III (Estate Manager and Son of Isaac Hayes), Micah Stampley (gospel recording artist), and more! There will also be special virtual performances from, “The Southern Hummingbird”, Tweet, “The Prince of Praise”, Byron Cage, and Dorinda Clark Cole of the legendary gospel group, The Clark Sisters.
The event will be held virtually using the platform “Hopin”. There will be multiple stages,...
- 5/14/2021
- Look to the Stars
The son of the legendary Isaac Hayes is upset that there are no original Hayes tracks in the new “Shaft” movie, calling its soundtrack album “a cultural disaster.”
New Line Cinema, which made the movie — starring Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Roundtree and Jessie T. Usher as three generations of the Shaft family — insists that there is Hayes music all over the movie and soundtrack, even if no original tracks were licensed from the Hayes estate.
Isaac Hayes won a Best Song Oscar for his “Shaft” theme, written in 1971 for the original movie with Roundtree as a Harlem private eye. His score was also nominated, won two Grammys and launched an entire genre of blaxploitation movie soundtracks including Curtis Mayfield’s “Super Fly” and Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man.”
Hayes contributed a song to the 1972 sequel, “Shaft’s Big Score,” and re-recorded his original theme for director John Singleton’s 2000 reboot of the series with Jackson.
New Line Cinema, which made the movie — starring Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Roundtree and Jessie T. Usher as three generations of the Shaft family — insists that there is Hayes music all over the movie and soundtrack, even if no original tracks were licensed from the Hayes estate.
Isaac Hayes won a Best Song Oscar for his “Shaft” theme, written in 1971 for the original movie with Roundtree as a Harlem private eye. His score was also nominated, won two Grammys and launched an entire genre of blaxploitation movie soundtracks including Curtis Mayfield’s “Super Fly” and Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man.”
Hayes contributed a song to the 1972 sequel, “Shaft’s Big Score,” and re-recorded his original theme for director John Singleton’s 2000 reboot of the series with Jackson.
- 6/14/2019
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
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