Hi folks. I don’t normally do the celebrity mourning thing but I was absolutely gutted to see that Isaac Hayes passed away only a couple of hours ago. I’ve long been a fan of him, mainly his music, the funk, the soul; the theme of ‘Shaft’ needs no introduction. The track kicks in with scratching wah wah guitar and is utterly infectious. I have it on my phone as an MP3, it’s on every playlist I have which is hooked up to my sound system. I’m gutted.

Most probably knew him as Chef from South Park which is fair enough, and like so many he probably won’t be remembered for the musical genius that he was. I must admit one of my favourite tracks ever is ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’ and there are a lucky half a dozen or so individuals who have either heard me singing it in the shower or on karaoke; but his stuff during the early 70’s is astoundingly before it’s time.

The first time I ever became aware of Isaac was watching the film ‘I’m gonna git you sucka’ upon the recommendation of my mate Glen when I was around 17 years old. ‘Sucka’ parodised all of the great blaxploitation flicks like Shaft, Superfly and Cleopatra Jones which I love; strangely enough I quite literally only just watched ‘Sucka’ last week, talking to Dan about the scene in which the hero picks up a woman in a bar, only to take her back to her place and find she’s wearing a wig, a fake pair of tits, a fake ass and has a prosthetic leg.

Whilst I don’t want to get caught up in the usual outpouring of random crap that I’d associate with the death of someone like Heath Ledger; I did want to put this tribute to Isaac on my site because he has had so much influence in my life.

Rest in peace you bad motherfucker.