Artist

Few in soul music have fused gospel vision with social concern as profoundly as Curtis Mayfield. The singer-songwriter was born in Chicago in 1942, where his roots in the gospel and doo-wop scene shaped his role as the frontman of The Impressions. Formed in 1956, the group offered a stirring mix of love ballads and inspirational anthems that sparked the civil rights movement while laying the groundwork for Mayfield’s solo career. Like the music of Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, and Stevie Wonder, Mayfield’s gritty progressive funk and pointed messages on Black pride and social despair epitomized the Black Power era across his most seminal solo work, namely 1970’s Curtis, 1971’s Roots, and 1972’s Superfly soundtrack. Despite his successful productions for other artists, Mayfield’s forays into smooth soul and disco stalled in the second half of the ’70s. Since his death in December 1999, the pulse of his radical soul has kept on pushing in all of Black pop—influencing countless others in modern hip-hop and R&B.