Isaac Hayes, the Oscar and Grammy-winning soul and funk singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, composer, and actor who is probably best known for composing “The Theme from Shaft,” died Sunday inside his home located just east of Memphis, Tennessee.  Hayes’ wife found him on the floor near a treadmill, and he was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08am, at the age of 65. The cause of death was not immediately known. At the time of his death, he was preparing his first new studio album since 1995 on his old record label, Stax Records, and he was completing a movie called Soul Man with Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac.

Hayes won an Oscar at the 44th Academy Awards in 1972 for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards (Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special and Best Pop Instrumental Performance By An Arranger, Composer, Orchestra and/or Choral Leader.)  He received a third Grammy for the album Black Moses.  In 1992, in recognition of his humanitarian work, he was crowned an honorary king of Ghana’s Ada district.  In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He appeared in many movies…the most memorable one to me was Keenan Ivory Wayans’ 1988 blaxpoitation parody flick I’m Gonna Get You Sucka.

In 1997, his career experienced a resurgence when he voiced the character of Chef…a lady lovin’, smooth soul-singing elementary school chef…on the hit Comedy Central show “South Park.”  He ended his association with the show when he was offended by the Emmy-nominated 2006 episode, “Trapped in the Closet,” which made fun of Scientology.  Hayes, a practicing Scientologist since 1995, thought that creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker went over the line with the episode.  They responded back by saying that the show has made fun of several other religions throughout the years, but they let him out of his contract anyway (they got their revenge in the episode “The Return of Chef” by using archived soundbites and then killing the character off in the end.)

I’m going to give you the Billboard chart history of this bad mutha (shut yo mouth!) (more…)