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 credited her win in part to the days she spent listening to artists like Curtis Mayfield. That quote and her knowledge of the singer’s discography have since “paid off,” earning her the title of director of the documentary The Makings of Curtis Mayfield, which is about the impact of his music on artists of this generation.
“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 nickname is ‘a gentle genius,’ and I had no idea what that meant until I was listening to how many people were students of his. … No matter how versed you are in who he is, his presence was so felt and his genius was so felt. People give the credit to Marvin Gaye, and they give some credit to Stevie [Wonder] and there’s a lot of people who spoke politically to Sly [Stone], but [Mayfield] came before a lot of those people.”
The Makings of Curtis Mayfield, which premiered at SXSW, features interviews with famous musicians — but not just anyone made the cut. H.E.R. says her focus was on recruiting “people who had a connection” or “visceral reaction” to Curtis, noting her chat with Dr. Dre was “really special.”
“We were in his space [Dr. Dre’s home studio], and he knew so much about Curtis,” H.E.R. says. “He had these child-like reactions to the music in real time. When people experience Dr. Dre’s love for Curtis in this doc, they get a different Dr. Dre. I think that is so powerful. In that interview, you get to see how he influenced hip hop.”
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