You can't mention soul, funk, or psychedelic rock without mentioning Sly Stone—a musical pioneer who paved the way for an entire generation. Sly was so good that he made everyone around him better.
The Temptations switched up their sound because of him. Parliament-Funkadelic came down the path Stone blazed for them. And many Black artists didn't back down when the whitewashed music industry tried to control their careers. Why? Because Sly Stone did it first.
His influence eventually trickled down to pop and hip-hop music. Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation was one of the first to sample Stone, and it ushered in a whole new era of Stone continuing to influence music even when he was no longer in the spotlight.
In hip hop, everyone from LL Cool J to A Tribe Called Quest samples his music. He gave us the Black cookout classic "Family Affair." His band's 1968 hit song "Everyday People" was instrumental in popularizing the saying "different strokes for different folks." Stone wasn't nothing to play with on or off the stage. He was notorious for marching to the beat of his drum, which undeniably changed how people make and listen to music.
Much can be said about Sly Stone, but his story should remind us that we can show up exactly as ourselves in all of our complexities and create a legacy worth celebrating for generations to come.