A while back, I mentioned that I thought Curtis Mayfield an unsung musical genius. Turns out the man is plenty sung, not least by Kayne West, who sampled Mayfield’s excellent “Move On Up” in his less-excellent-though-still-good “Touch The Sky”:
Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up” from Curtis (1970)
Kayne West – “Touch The Sky (feat. Lupe Fiasco)” from Late Registration (2005)
Not sick of that horn riff yet? Check out the Jam covering it here, and Curtis himself bongo-jammin’ it here, sans horns.
Earlier I had posted one of Mayfield’s classics from his famous Superfly soundtrack, “Little Child Runnin’ Wild.” Here is a demo version, a little less ominous, featuring fewer chord changes and a brighter groove:
Curtis Mayfield – “Ghetto Child (Demo Version)” from Curtis reissue (org. 1970ish)
Finally, here’s a classic from the group that gave Curtis Mayfield his start, and for which he did some of his most beautiful writing:
The Impressions – “You Must Believe Me” from People Get Ready (1965)
Have a funkdafied weekend, y’all.
Posted by Glenn
So Well Remembered 
Curtis Mayfield is a well sung genius (check Billy Jack). Also, Touch the Sky is not a Kanye beat. Kanye bought that from Just Blaze which is totally whack cause Kanye West is supposed to be a producer and all.
Kanye doesn’t have to produce ::every:: song he releases. I don’t really see the argument. Anyway, Curtis Mayfield is awesome. You can never go wrong with any of the man’s work.
I don’t think there’s much controversy about the genius of Curtis Mayfield. Thank you for the reminder, time for some sweet Sunday funk.