Isaac Hayes has died.

RIP.

Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?
(Shaft!)
You're damn right

Bio.

We all loved him as Chef on "South Park." Here are tons of Chef clips.



Sad!

ADDED: Here's the old post about Hayes quitting "South Park" because it disrespected Scientology.

AND: The "Shaft" music in its original context, the opening sequence of the movie:



MORE: From the WaPo obit:

In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap....

"Hot Buttered Soul" was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a "cool" style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with "raps," and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

"Jocks would play it at night," Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."

I love that quote. Jocks would play it at night. They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever.