Stax Records – The Soul Of Hip-Hop, Volume I

STAX RECORDS REVISIT ROOTS OF THE HIP-HOP GENERATION WITH THE SOUL OF HIP-HOP, VOLUME 1

Fourteen-track
collection due March 31, 2009 – includes original Stax hits of the ‘60s
and ‘70s later sampled by contemporary hip-hop artists

All-Star
Set Includes Isaac Hayes, Booker T & The MGs, The Emotions, William
Bell, David Porter, The Bar-Kays, The Dramatics, Rufus Thomas, Little
Milton and many more

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Every creative act,
no matter how edgy and forward thinking, has some precedent. Even the
most progressive artist, no matter how groundbreaking, cannot deny a
connection to an earlier era of genius. In few places is this link more
evident than in hip-hop, an art form built on musical artifacts and
hooks from decades past, reconfigured and reinterpreted via
contemporary recording and sampling technology.

And judging
from the sounds of modern-day hip-hop, artists from Stax Records were
prominent figures in those record collections. Stax, re-launched in
2007 as a division of Concord Music Group, offers a glimpse of
hip-hop’s roots with the release of The Soul of Hip Hop, Volume I, a
collection of classic tracks from the ‘60s and ‘70s. The 14 songs
featured in this first volume are just a few of the Stax gems that have
since become sampling mainstays for some of the most prominent hip-hop
artists of the past two decades – all of whom owe an incalculable debt
to the label’s rich legacy of soul, R&B and funk. The Soul of Hip
Hop, Volume I will be available at all digital and retail outlets on
March 31, 2009.

The compilation is a testament to the enormous
influence of the Stax sound, energy and attitude on the entire hip-hop
generation. The Soul of Hip Hop, Volume I features hits from Stax
luminaries like Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & The MGs, The Emotions, The
Bar-Kays, The Dramatics, Rufus Thomas, William Bell, David Porter and
Little Milton. Since the ‘80s, these artists and their classic
recordings featured here have become source material for rap and
hip-hop artists and producers like Rakim, DJ HiTek, Cypress Hill, DJ
Muggs, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, DJ Quik, Ice Cube, Notorious B.I.G.,
Wu-Tang Clan, RZA and so many more.

Apart from its undeniable
influence on the hip-hop generation, Stax Records holds a pivotal place
in American music history as one of the most popular soul music record
labels of all time – second only to Motown in sales and influence, but
first in gritty, raw, Southern-steeped soul music. In its heyday
throughout the ‘60s and early ‘70s, Stax placed more than 167 hit songs
on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop charts as well as a staggering 243 hits on
the R&B charts.

Stax Records continues to define the sound
of beats in the world of hip-hop and popular music. No one could have
ever predicted that decades after they closed their doors in Memphis,
Stax Records would be opening the consciousness of an entirely new
generation. The vintage tracks featured here truly represent The Soul
of Hip-Hop.

TRACK LIST