There are quite a few famous ones; Shaft, Superfly, Across 100th Street, Pipedreams, Lets Do It Again, The Mack, Trouble Man, Sweet Sweetbacks, Coffy, etc BUT there were many more made between 1970 & the mid 70's.

Lots were pure garbage, film wise, but still had decent soundtracks. Dave Godin always recommended 'Cotton Comes To Harlem' and in others, decent soul artists make cameo appearances (the 3 Degrees, Mary Love & more).

Anyone here recommend one either cos it's a decent watch or cos it features great music ?

this is a good CD, not seen the films though

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Records-Presents-Politics-Action-1969-75/dp/B002GUJ13E

Tough guys / Issac Hays think he acted in it as well good soundtrack though

Willie Dynamite soundtrack by JJ Johnson is a great album, Martha Reeves sounds great !!!

There’s loads of Blaxploitation films on YouTube, many obscure ones. Having said that, most of them are not actually that good… but some of the soundtracks have great tunes.

I used to be many many years ago in a video swap group of the genre and we got together to watch them, also had a night I Dj’d at called B-Movie where we showed a film each night on grainy VHS as part of the night.

Black Belt Jones is good and has the greatest ever car wash fight scene of course… but Black Belt Jones 2 is so bad it’s hilarious… Coffey in his platforms with goldfish in the soles… Truck Turner who is so bad he chins someone in a wheelchair getting out of a lift.. Blackula… so many funny moments if you can make it through the film…

Bacula,The Human Tornado and the Black Gestapo

Have you seen Detroit?

It is currently on Sky movies, and is a dramatisation of a true story and features at it's centre the Dramatics of Inky Dinky and All Because of you Fame. It is a bit of a tough watch at times because of the racial violence, but well worth watching for the story and the music.

Love this genre, me and my mates used watch them when we were 17/18. Always thought they were quite interesting with them being black financed productions and in some way a byproduct of the civil rights movement often rejection of the Hollywood styles of film production of the day which is why they have a bit of a shoddy / DIY vibe and the fact that fed into original music being produced for the soundtracks. A bit like with the Nollywood genre. I always thought everyone always looks cool as and without thinking too much they must have given room for films like Boogie Nights and those types of things which had much more commercial success.

Edited Sunday at 11:373 days by Clee93

Always thought this was an interesting one. Can't find any evidence of a film per se but the 'soundtrack' exists. Possibly they were hoping for some revenue from the soundtrack to fund the film. Decidedly poor artwork couldn't have helped.

Contains Delilah Moores "It takes love"

11 hours ago, Jim Elliott said:

HIT EM HARD -- Always thought this was an interesting one. Can't find any evidence of a film per se but the 'soundtrack' exists. Possibly they were hoping for some revenue from the soundtrack to fund the film.

The HIT EM HARD soundtrack was the creation of Bobby Davis (BDE Records aka Bobby Davis Enterprises) ... his Bobby Davis Orchestra were the band on the album. A couple of years later he came up with -- Music From The Motion Picture "The 'Zar Of New Orleans" -- another so-called movie soundtrack album. This was released on BDR -- Bobby Davis Records. ONCE AGAIN, I can find no evidence that a movie of that name was ever made. Guess it was a marketing ploy of his.

A similar situation exists with Teddy Vann's COLOREDMAN superhero -- this persona was created & the THEME FROM ... track cut in the hope a TV series would follow ...

Edited Monday at 08:152 days by Roburt

Probably not classed as blaxploitation but stars a certain Marvin Gaye

I watched a steady stream of these films at the drive-in cinema in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in the late 1970s (about five years after they were originally released in the US). I particularly remember Five On The Black Hand Side (title song by long-time Frederick Knight collaborator, Kesia Brown) and Cornbread, Earl and Me (music by Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds).

In Feb 1976, Roy Stanton (of Black Wax record shop in Streatham and Black Wax Magazine), made a bold effort to list all films that contained black American music. A number of the Blaxploitation films are included in this extract from the list (published in Shout #107).

Hats off to Roy and other researchers, listers and discographers who worked so tirelessly in those pre-internet days to chronicle all aspects of our music.

Motown soundtrack to the film - Nothing But a Man-

Don't know much about the film. Abbey Lincoln was a jazz singer, having albums issued in the late 50s early 60s.

Trailer for the film -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSjgshFzHJE

Many of these soundtracks can be quite expensive, mainly because collecting soundtracks is a "thing" in its own right, so not just soul fans who seek them out.