Soul legend Isaac Hayes has just passed away. He was discovered at his home in Memphis on Sunday and pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital. The cause of death is as of yet unknown. This is a great loss as Hayes’ work has had an immeasurable effect on music across many genres. For a glimpse at his work and its influence on hip-hop, take a look at ML’s Beat Drop. Here are my two favorite Isaac Hayes songs.
Download: Isaac Hayes – The Look of Love
Download: Isaac Hayes – Walk on By
And here’s the Wu-Tang Clan’s “I Can’t Go to Sleep” for which Hayes provided the chorus as well as the original sample.
Download: Wu-Tang Clan – I Can’t Go to Sleep (featuring Isaac Hayes)
“The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence,” he said. “And they’ll tell you if you ask.”
RIP: Isaac.
….
hung up on my baby:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/168319648f5c185e/
I got a chance to see him play for free in Prospect Park in Brooklyn just about 2 months ago.
A true musical genius. I couldn’t be sadder about this.
I remember driving to my first day of law school about a year ago. I left about 2 hours early (for a 30 minute drive) just to make sure I’d get there on time. Sure enough, there was a huge accident on the freeway and it took 45 minutes to get on to the freeway (I literally live 2 blocks away from the freeway entrance). I was frantic, calling up friends with nearby internet access to get the phone number of the school just in case I’d be late — let’s just say that you can’t make a worse impression on a law school professor than to show up late on the first day of class. Unsuccessful in reaching anyone, I just sat back in my ride and put on some Isaac Hayes on my iPod… and I’ll be damned if I wasn’t calmed down within minutes. (Plus, I got to school well on time.)
He would’ve been 66 on August 20th. R.I.P.