Isaac Lee Hayes (born 20 August 1942, in Covington, Tennessee) is an actor, and influential soul singer, songwriter, musician and arranger.
Hayes began his recording career in 1962, soon playing saxophone for The Mar-Keys. After writing a string of hit songs at Stax Records with songwriting partner David Porter, Hayes released Presenting Isaac Hayes. A moderate success, the album was recorded immediately following a wild party.
The top-selling Hot Buttered Soul (1969) was a breakthrough album, and established his image (gold jewelry, sunglasses, etc) which eventually became a template for much of the fashion of gangsta rap and similar trends in the 1980s and 90s. Hayes' biggest hit was 1971's soundtrack to Shaft. The title song won an Oscar (the first for an African American composer), and clearly presaged disco. Black Moses (1971) became almost as successful.
By 1975, Hayes left Stax Records and formed his own label called Hot Buttered Soul Records. A series of unsuccessful albums led to Hayes' bankruptcy in 1976. The late 1970s saw a major comeback for Hayes, following the release of A Man and a Woman (1977, with Dionne Warwick). In spite of moderate success as a singer, Hayes' records did not sell very well.
Hayes has also forged a career as an actor in TV shows and feature films. When Shaft was being filmed, Hayes wanted the lead role, which went to Richard Roundtree; director Gordon Parks was impressed with Hot Buttered Soul where Hayes ended up scoring the film's music. In the 1970s and 1980s he had appeared in some TV shows, including The Rockford Files and The A-Team. He appeared as the title role in Truck Turner (1974) (the only film he ever had a leading role), The Duke of New York in Escape from New York (1981), and as "Hammer" in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).
By the late 1990s, he was best known as the voice of Chef on South Park. A song from the series performed by Chef, "Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You)", received some international radio airplay in 1999. It reached Number One on the UK singles chart. The track subsequently appeared on the album Chef Aid: The South Park Album in 1998.
Hayes was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
In 2004, Hayes appeared in a recurring minor role as the Jaffa Tolok on the television series Stargate SG-1. The following year, he appeared in the critically acclaimed independent film Hustle & Flow.
