Timeless Music: Isaac Hayes – “Soulsville”

“Soulsville,” from the movie Shaft. This is my favorite Isaac Hayes joint. The scene in Shaft where this song plays is so appropriate. The images — which are certainly no Hollywood props, but instead, real glimpses of early 1970s impoverished Harlem — are heartbreaking and encouraging at the very same time. And what makes this montage rise and resonate is Hayes’s “Soulsivlle.”

“Soulsville,” a poignant song teeming with depth and force, is one of the songs that has had the most effect on the ways in which I strive to underscore my music with feeling. The collective (often meticulous) processes of making beats can lead a beatmaker to create music that’s audibly pleasing yet devoid of feeling. And so to guard against this pitfall, I’m mindful of giving every beat that I make a “soul.” In fact, I embrace the notion that every piece of music that I create is, in some way, an extension of me. Therefore, every sound that I craft and/or use, even down to the most truncated hi-hat, must fit within my own style and preferred audio composite. For when I do so, I know that I am injecting soul and genuine feeling into my music.

The music video below is presented here for the purpose of scholarship.

Isaac Hayes – “Soulsville”