It’s been a long time coming. In fact, for the past eight years and thirty-seven issues, we’ve wanted to do a Curtis Mayfield cover. It finally worked out for our unofficial Film/Hustler Issue, in which we take a look at Mayfield’s epic soundtrack recording Super Fly. New York writer Michael Gonzales pulls from his own 1996 Curtis Mayfield interview as well as tapping Curtis associates, guitarists Craig McMullen and Phil Upchurch and composer/arranger Johnny Pate, to tell the story of the finest blaxploitation score of the 1970s.

Once again, we’ve created a split cover–with Curtis on front both times and the back shared by two classic films: Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (Radio Raheem in full effect) and Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin (a Wax Poetics favorite). Besides speaking with both of these groundbreaking filmmakers, we also take a look at the new film Black Dynamite (Wax Poetics Records released the score and soundtrack), and music supervisor David Hollander reveals the fundamental facts of once-mysterious library music.

Last but not least, we finally unveil the Robert Beck aka Iceberg Slim story by longtime contributer Mark McCord (aka Mark Skillz). As the greatest hustler of all time, Beck finally gets his due.

• re:Discovery Melvin Van Peebles, Manfred Krug, Marvin Gaye , Various Artists Judgment Night, John Carpenter Assault on Precinct 13
• In Memoriam Roc Raida 1972-2009 The Grand Master
• Shadows and Phonographs The sinister role of the turntable in Hollywood classics
• Brotherman Blaxploitation soundtrack for a film that wasn’t meant to be
• Can You Dig It? The music and politics of Black action films
• Adrian Younge Black Dynamite composter refuses to cut corners with his authentic old soul
• Gangs on Film The South Bronx of 1979 documented in 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s
• Night Life Photographer Michael Abramson captured the magic of 1970s South Side Chicago
• The Rhythm of Film DJ/Producer David Holmes approaches soundtrack composition with a less-is-more philosophy
• Mood Music European libraries created soulful instrumentals for ’70s film and television
• The Next Hustle Ex-pimp Robert Beck transformed into writer Iceberg Slim, introducing a new genre for literature, film, and music
• Comic Truth Animation and indie film pioneer Ralph Bakshi drew attention to race and culture
• Gangster Boogie Curtis Mayfield injected his own cultural commentary into the Super Fly legacy
• The Provocateur Director Spike Lee continues to tell personal stories by any means necessary
• Playing It Straight Black Dynamite director Scott Sanders crafts high-caliber blaxploitation homage
• Analog Out Cybernetics, Louis and Bebe Barron, and the sonic life-forms of Forbidden Planet
• Converse 45 Series The Big Score: Adrian Younge “Rafelli Chase” b/w Brian Bennett / Alan Hawkshaw “High Diver”