Curtis Mayfield
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Curtis Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American soul, funk and R&B singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Superfly. From these works and others, he was highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a bassist, pianist, saxophonist and drummer.
Tributes
In June 2007 Sinead O'Connor released two versions (one acoustic and one with full band) of Mayfield's "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue" on her album Theology.
The Dust Brothers sampled the intro to Mayfield's "Superfly" for the Beastie Boys song "Eggman" on the album "Paul's Boutique".
Hip hop producer Just Blaze has used a slowed down sample of Mayfield's "Move On Up" for the 2006 Kanye West/Lupe Fiasco hit single "Touch The Sky". Eminem sampled Mayfield's song "Pusherman" for his debut LP on the song "I'm Shady". Late rapper 2Pac sampled him consistently as well Template:Fact. "Pusherman" was also covered by Doyle Bramhall II.
Jay-Z sampled "Short Eyes" for his 2007 song "American Gangster" from the eponymous album.
Mary J. Blige samples "give me your love" for her 1994 song "I'm The Only Woman" from the My Life album.
In 1988, Fishbone acknowledged Mayfield's influence on their own vision, "a melting pot of ska, punk, and funk [with] hard rock (...) added to the mix", by choosing to cover Mayfield's early 70's hit "Freddie's Dead" to open their well-regarded Truth and Soul LP, which "also featured (...) several musically varied tracks that deal with the same topic: racism, past and present (...)"
In 1996 Australian vocal band Human Nature recorded 2 a cappella versions of "People Get Ready", one, without the middle verse, on their 1996 Telling Everybody album, and the other, with the middle verse, on their 2001 Here & Now: The Best of Human Nature Album.
Paul Weller routinely cited Mayfield's works as influence and inspiration. With his first band The Jam, Weller recorded Mayfield's "Move On Up" as a B-side of a single.
Monica sampled "The Makings of You" on her 2006 single "A Dozen Roses (You Remind Me)" from her The Makings of Me album. The title of the album refers to that song.
Every phase of Jamaican music, starting with rocksteady, was profoundly influenced by Curtis Mayfield's body of work. The Techniques, The Uniques, Bob Marley and The Wailers, and many other early vocal groups in Jamaica were deeply influenced by the songwriting, vocal harmonies, and black consciousness that appear as hallmarks on Impressions recordings from the early to mid 1960s. Many of the Wailers' early ska recordings are Impressions covers. One of Marley's most well known songs, "One Love", is in fact a take on "People Get Ready".
Ice-T prominently sampled "Pusherman" on the song I'm Your Pusher; Clipse also sampled "Pusherman" on "Cot Damn" from their 2002 Lord Willin' album.
Souls Of Mischief sampled "We're a Winner" on "Limitations" from their debut album 93 'til Infinity.
In 1993, three years after the accident which caused Mayfield's paralysis, Shanachie records released the album People Get Ready: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield, featuring Jerry Butler, Don Covay, Steve Cropper, lani Groves, Michael Hill, Huey Lewis & The News, Delbert McClinton, Vernon Reid, David Sanborn, Jonathan Sanborn, Angela Strehli, Bunny Wailer, Kim Wilson. According to the album cover, "Fifty percent of all royalties will benefit Curtis Mayfield."
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