Sly & the Family Stone pioneered the funk sound that would become essential to hip-hop sampling.

Represents the birth of psychedelic funk and polyrhythmic complexity that would define hip-hop's rhythmic foundation

Featured the integrated, multiracial band that embodied the social ideals hip-hop would later champion

Sly Stone's innovative production techniques anticipated sampling and beat-making by decades

The track's polyrhythmic layering became the template for complex hip-hop production

Recorded during the height of 1960s social revolution, matching hip-hop's later political consciousness