Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

After saving a Black Panther from racist cops, a Black male prostitute goes on the run from “the man” with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels. Deemed by Huey P. Newton “the first truly revolutionary Black film made,” Peebles' landmark 1971 film catalyzed a whole genre of blaxploitation, a cultural touchstone of the ‘70s. Soundtracked by the thumping basslines of then-unknown Earth, Wind & Fire, Peebles’ opus became the blueprint for not just the genre it birthed, but soul music’s ongoing symbiosis with cinema.