Posted on 08/11/2008 5:56:12 AM PDT by kellynla
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose "Theme From Shaft" won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.
Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.
With his muscular build, shiny head and sunglasses, Hayes cut a striking figure at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting Afros. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.
And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."
"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes _ the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
chef goes away for good.
“after he collapsed near a treadmill”
Exercise kills.
He was one of the main innovators of funk, experimental soul and proto-hip hop.
Just an American original and a great talent.
He will be missed.
Who’s the black private dick
That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!
Ya damn right!
Who is the man that would risk his neck
For his brother man?
SHAFT!
Can you dig it?
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out
When there’s danger all about?
SHAFT!
Right On!
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
I’m talkin’ ‘bout Shaft.
THEN WE CAN DIG IT!
He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
JOHN SHAFT!
Clear.
George Clooney?
Freeman was probably supposed to be one of the three, but Death missed the mark.
Death is camping out on Peter Griffin’s couch with a hurt ankle.
Yeah, Freeman escaped, I think you are right about him being the third.
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