Just as hip-hop may be moving beyond the '70s blaxploitation vibe, Rhino Records will hit sampling headz with a new 25th anniversary edition of the soundtrack to the genre's seminal flick, Superfly.
The two-CD
set, due Nov. 11, will feature not only the original Curtis Mayfield soundtrack, but also the single edits of the songs "Freddie's Dead" and "Superfly," as well as an entire disc of studio outtakes, film snippets, radio spots and interview excerpts.
Among the choice, unreleased cuts will be a 1970 demo by Mayfield called "The Underground," as well as an alternate version of "Pusherman" and a song called "Ghetto Child," which later evolved into "Little Child Runnin' Wild." Along with the original Shaft film, 1972's Superfly is considered a high-water mark of the movie genre that eventually came to be called blaxploitation.
Mayfield's evocative, textured instrumentals defined the music of the period, and have long provided fertile territory for hip-hop samplers (the Beastie Boys snatched "Superfly" for their song "Egg Man") and re-interpreters (Fishbone's reworking of "Freddie's Dead").
In 1990, Mayfield was paralyzed when a lighting rig fell on him in the middle of a concert. The interview excerpt, included on the 25th anniversary edition of Superfly, was conducted for the 1997 Mayfield box set People Get Ready. -- Chris Nelson [Wed., Sept. 10, 1997, 1 p.m. PST]
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