Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

Strictly limited to 2,500 numbered copies!

Rolling Stone Top 500 albums ranked 72/500

Curtis Mayfield's border-transcending Superfly is much more than a soundtrack to a cutting-edge blaxploitation film. Recorded in 1972 to coincide with Gordon Parks, Jr's movie about a dealer attempting to divorce himself from the urban underworld, Mayfield's brilliantly orchestrated set ignited an entire genre, expanded the scope of R&B, and spurred dialogues surrounding significant social issues ranging from the unvarnished consequences of hustling to the realities of African-American lives in America.

Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's world-renowned mastering system and strictly limited to 2,500 numbered copies, this Hybrid SACD of Superfly presents Mayfield's vision with widescreen sonics worthy of its cinematic reach. This disc explodes the wealth of discernible aural information. Separation between the seemingly countless instruments, the myriad timbres of Mayfield's voice, the ambitious breadth and crucial shifts of the strings, the probing reach of the lean albeit direction-leading bass: You've never heard Superfly sound so vibrant, realistic, or immediate on disc.

No wonder Superfly kickstarted the genre of blaxploitation music. Yes, Isaac Hayes' Shaft arrived nearly a year earlier. Apart to their fundamental relationship to the style, however, the records are worlds apart. Mayfield's creation stands as a fully realized track-by-track immersion into urban neighborhoods, mindsets, and lives that doubles as both boots-on-the-ground reportage and an emotionally loaded wake-up call.