Melvin Van Peebles’ classic 1971 action thriller Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song inadvertently kickstarted the blaxploitation genre with its picaresque tale of a poor black man on the run from LAPD. And the soundtrack–performed by then-unknown Earth, Wind & Fire and released by the iconic Memphis soul label Stax Records–was just as influential and innovative. With its collage aesthetic, alternating between hymn-based vocalization and jazz-funk rhythms, Van Peebles created a bold, freewheeling