Sylvester Stewart (March 15, 1943 – June 9, 2025), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development of funk with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia, and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s. AllMusic stated that "James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it," and credited him with "creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds".[3] Crawdaddy! has credited him as the founder of the "progressive soul"

Musical Companion to Academy Award Winning Filmmaker’s Acclaimed Sundance-Premiered Documentary

Available to Pre-Order on CD & LP Now, Out Digitally Today

SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) Premieres Today on Hulu

New York, NY — Thursday, February 13, 2025 — Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson—the renowned Academy Award winning filmmaker, producer, DJ, podcast host, and bandleader of The Roots and The Tonight Show—and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, today announced the original motion picture soundtrack to SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), Questlove’s acclaimed new documentary about enigmatic musical chameleons Sly & the Family Stone.

In addition to the band’s signature hits, the album features seven rare and previously unreleased alternate versions, along with three unreleased new edits by Questlove and Brooklyn-based DJ, remixer, and hip-hop producer J.PERIOD.

SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was compiled by author/music journalist Jeff Mao and producer/director Joseph Patel and co-produced by Mao, Patel, Questlove, and Rob Santos on behalf of Sony Music. It will be available in three configurations: The CD and LP editions are set for release on Friday, May 9, while the digital edition is out today, February 13, on all major streaming platforms. The CD and LP editions are available for pre-order now HERE.

SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), produced by Two One Five Entertainment (the production company founded by Questlove and Black Thought) and Network Entertainment in partnership with MRC Non-Fiction and Disney’s Onyx Collective, alongside producers Joseph Patel and Derik Murray, explores the life and legacy of Sly & the Family Stone. The interracial, mixed-gender band broke down barriers in the late ‘60s and 1970s by fusing soul, funk, gospel, Latin, and psychedelic rock on both a string of Top 40 hits (“I Want to Take You Higher,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” and more), and canonical albums (1969’s Stand!, 1971’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On).

The film captures the group’s rise, cultural dominance, and subsequent fade, while also touching on the often-unseen burden of being a successful Black artist in America. It features cameos from André 3000, D’Angelo, Nile Rogers, Chaka Khan, George Clinton, Q-Tip, Clive Davis, Ruth Copeland, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

The documentary, which premieres on Hulu today, made its debut on January 25th at the Sundance Film Festival to widespread critical praise. Variety called it a “a dazzling and definitive funk-pop documentary,” with Vulture writing, “You walk out of Sly Lives! feeling like you’ve genuinely learned something, but you also walk out exhilarated.” The Wrap, meanwhile, praised the movie as “illuminating” and “exceptionally rich,” highlighting Questlove’s “knack for cinematic pacing, compositions, and arrangement.” SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) also received acclaim from The Hollywood Reporter, which called the film a “tender and sobering love letter,” and Collider, which crowned it an “essential rock documentary.”

SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) is Questlove’s second directorial effort of 2025, alongside Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, helmed for NBC/Peacock with Oz Rodriguez. Both projects follow his debut music-doc, 2021’s Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.