When H.E.R.’s song “Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah won the Oscar for best original song in 2021, she attributed her success in part to the time she spent listening to singers such as Curtis Mayfield.
That comment, along with her understanding of the singer’s catalog, has now “paid off,” garnering her the position of director of the documentary The Makings of Curtis Mayfield, which explores the impact of his music on today’s performers.
“As I was sitting down with people, the common thing that I recognized the most within the conversations was impact,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “His moniker is ‘a gentle genius,’ and I had no idea what that meant until I heard how many individuals he had as students.
His presence and intelligence were palpable, regardless of how well you knew him. People give credit to Marvin Gaye, some to Stevie Wonder, and there are many people who spoke politically to Sly Stone, but [Mayfield] came before a lot of those guys.”
The Makings of Curtis Mayfield, which premiered at SXSW, includes interviews with well-known musicians, but not everyone made the cut. H.E.R. says she focused on recruiting “people who had a connection” or “visceral reaction” to Curtis, and that her conversation with Dr. Dre was “really special.”
“We were in his space, and he knew so much about Curtis,” H.E.R. recalls. “He had childlike emotions to the music in real time.
When audiences witness Dr. Dre’s affection for Curtis in this documentary, they see a new Dr. Dre. I think that is quite powerful. In that interview, you can see how he impacted hip hop.
