Isaac Hayes x HUF

San Francisco's finest, HUF present a long awaited collaboration with the estate of Isaac Hayes.

Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records in the 1960s.

Hayes wrote the musical score for the film Shaft in 1971. For the "Theme from Shaft," he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making him the third black person, after Hattie McDaniel & Sidney Poitier to win an Academy Award in any competitive field covered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Hayes also won two Grammy Awards that same year. Later, he won his third Grammy for his album Black Moses.

On July 17, 1974, Hayes, along with Mike Storen, Avron Fogelman, and Kemmons Wilson, took over ownership of the American Basketball Association team the Memphis Tams. The prior owner was Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Oakland A's baseball team. Hayes's group renamed the team the Memphis Sounds. 

INFLUENCE ON SOUL MUSIC

In the early 60s, he worked as a session piano player & staff producer at Stax, playing on songs for the likes of Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, Sam & Dave + more.

Isaac Hayes not only shaped the label’s “Memphis Sound,” but also revolutionised soul music, paving a path for Black artists along the way. Soul music's first soiree with psychedelia came courtesy of The Chambers Brothers, whose 1968 chart hit "Time Has Come Today" used a fuzz-toned guitar, ominous tick-tock effects & a echoing reverb to create 11-minute trip into the unknown. Sly & The Family Stone extended the link between the genres the year after with their 13-minute soul jam Sex Machine, but only Black Moses, Mr Hot Buttered Soul himself had the vision & courage to create the first album-length marriage of soul’s roots & psychedelia’s ambition.

He continued to shift the musical landscape with The Isaac Hayes Movement (1970) and …To Be Continued (1970) - the latter of which found him delivering his first of many spoken word monologues in “Ike’s Rap I.” It was nearly a decade before the emergence of hip-hop.

INFLUENCE ON HIP HOP

Hayes helped create the building blocks for Hip Hop. There are very few artists in history whose work has been as frequently sampled, or been as directly influential to the genre. It is not an understatement to say Haye's was influential to every pioneering Hip Hop producer during it's formative years. Here are a few classics: