What a great CD series! These are British imports, so sometimes their perspective on what exactly constitutes "blaxploitation" differs from ours, but put any of these on and suddenly you're cruising the mean streets in your low rider (or so I imagine, says the pink guy.) "Volume 3: The Payback" features Curtis Mayfield ("Move On Up"), William DeVaughn ("Be Thankful for What You Got"), War ("The World is a Ghetto") --- and these are the full-length album versions, not the single edits. Volume 1 has more of what you'd expect ("Pusherman", "Superfly", "Theme from Shaft") but in both volumes, there are other, more surprising choices ("Also Sprach Zarathustra"? "Summer in the City" -- by Quincy Jones ??) Still, it all hangs together very well.
"Blue Funk" isn't part of the Blaxploitation series, but's it is very similar, raiding the Blue Note vaults to feature Grant Green, Jack McDuff, Lou Donaldson and Bobby Hutcherson -- fine, fine stuff indeed.
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