Ultimate Legends Tribute

Rhythm & Brews is celebrating Holliwood’s (our co-founder) birthday the 70s way!

If you’re in Atlanta & you have a 70s costume, you’re invited.

Come one, come all. Come ready to groove!💃🏽🪩🕺🏾

Dig deep, family! What is your favorite Sister Rosetta Tharpe song?!

It’s BLACK MUSIC MONTH! We must tell our own stories.

The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the 1st “Gospel” artist to achieve success in the secular market with the single “Strange Things Happening Every Day” (1945).

She was among the 1st Gospel singers to combine Gospel vocals with the distorted electric guitar sound, mating the groundwork for Rock & Soul.

In the 1940s & 1950s she regularly performed for 10K+, even stadiums!!!

A true pioneer & foundational architect, who was said to be Little Richard’s greatest influence (he said this).

Yesterday, a giant fell. R.I.P. Sly Stone!🎶🕊️

Earth hasn’t been the same since his deposits were made & we are eternally grateful. When we hear the phrase, “Often imitated, never duplicated.” Sly Stone, a true pioneer, should be amongst the FIRST to come to mind!

Sly Stone didn’t just create music—he reshaped it. With a mind that fused soul, funk, & rock, he built a sound that was entirely original and decades ahead of its time.

His band, Sly & The Family Stone, was the first major American group to be racially and gender-integrated, sending a bold message of unity through music that both challenged and transcended the social norms of the late 1960s. Songs like “Everyday People,” “Stand!” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” weren’t just hits—they were declarations of joy, resistance, and identity.

His influence was immediate and seismic.

George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic movement drew direct inspiration from Sly’s fearless experimentation and spiritual groove, blending cosmic philosophy with raw funk energy.

Larry Graham, his bassist, invented slap bass while playing with Sly, changing the language of rhythm forever. Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and even Miles Davis were moved by his unapologetic boldness and sonic freedom.

His music pushed boundaries not just artistically, but spiritually—he made it okay to be weird, Black, loud, and revolutionary all at once.

That blueprint echoed for decades.

Prince took the torch and ran with it—combining gender fluidity, instrumental mastery, and genre-defying artistry into his purple empire.

André 3000 of OutKast followed in those footsteps, channeling Sly’s theatricality, vulnerability, and funk-futurism into Southern hip-hop. And even today, the DNA of Sly Stone’s music lives on in artists who blend sound and statement, art and activism.

There will never be another like him—but his impact, his funk, and his fearlessness will echo forever.