As part of Memphis record label Stax Records, massive 60th anniversary reissue campaign they have reissued the soundtrack to blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
Written, produced, directed and even starring Melvin Van Peebles himself in 1971. The film's soundtrack featured a then unknown Earth, Wind and Fire who had worked alongside Van Peebles to compose the soundtrack together. The soundtrack had also foreshadowed the use of sampling in hip hop through alternating hymn-based vocalization and jazz rhythms.
The film was ahead of its time in that Van Peebles had considered the soundtrack as an integral part of the film as quoted, "Most filmmakers look at a feature in terms of image and story or vice versa. Effects and music [...] are strictly secondary considerations. Very few look at film with sound considered as a creative third dimension. So I calculate the scenario in such a way that sound can be used as an integral part of the film."
Check out the full soundtrack below.