Here’s part of Chuck Eddy’s excellent take on Isaac Hayes:

When people say Hayes’ early ’70s recordings anticipated — maybe even invented — disco, this is part of what they’re talking about. Of course, they’re also talking about how the epochal wah-wah of 1971’s “Theme From Shaft” so obsessively turned funk rhythms mechanistic; if there’s ever been a more inexorable No. 1 pop single, I don’ t know what it would be. But his more-lasting disco innovation was to expand the soul-dance beat toward eternity.

Oliver Wang introduces his set of Isaac Hayes’ covers:

As promised, a few cover songs of Isaac Hayes tunes and compositions in honor of the late master’s catalog. To be honest, it’s not quite as easy as you’d think. True, there’s a gazillion “Shaft” covers but remember that in Hayes’ post-Hot Buttered Soul career, most of his groundbreaking songs were reinterpretations of other people’s songs rather than original compositions. That said, in the case of JoAnn Garrett’s “Walk On By,” it’s clear that she’s working off of Hayes’ epic version rather than playing with the Bacharach/Warwick versions.

Tom O’Neil reminds us that Hayes was the third African American to win an Oscar:

Hayes was only the third African American to take home an Academy Award — after  Hattie McDaniel won the supporting actress race for “Gone With the Wind” in 1939 and Sidney Poitier prevailed in the best actor category for “Lilies of the Field” in 1963.

The Houston Chronicle’s Andrew Dansby writes about the scope of Hayes’ musical accomplishments:

the sonorous and velvety voice, the grand, orchestral ambition of his arrangements and the general laid-back pacing of the songs were without precedent. Shaft is a great single. South Park is a funny show. But before that anthem and that animated TV show, Hayes made music bigger than a genre that still sounds ahead of its time.