Syl Johnson Is It Because I'm Black

Coming hot on the heels of his first full length, the self-proclaimed "most sampled artist of all time" released the groundbreaking black concept LP Is It Because I'm Black a full 13 months before Marvin Gaye asked What's Going On? Rumbling hard past any notion of a sophomore jinx, Syl delivered a bracing, inspiring, and politically charged R&B document. "The 'lost' voice that cut the deepest, burned the hardest, and kept the best pace with the hall-of-famers." -Jonathan Lethem