Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) | |
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Directed by | Questlove |
Produced by |
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Edited by | Josh Pearson |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Hulu |
Release dates |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) is a 2025 American documentary film, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. It explores the life, career, and legacy of Sly and the Family Stone.
It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2025, and is scheduled to be released on February 13, 2025, by Hulu.
Explores the life, career, and legacy of Sly and the Family Stone. Andre 3000, D'Angelo, Chaka Khan, Q-Tip, Nile Rogers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, George Clinton, Ruth Copeland and Clive Davis appear in the film. [1]
In February 2021, it was announced Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson would direct a documentary revolving around Sly and the Family Stone with Common set to executive produce. [2] In January 2023, Onyx Collective and Hulu acquired the film. [3]
It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2025. [4] [5] It is scheduled to be released on February 13, 2025. [6]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 91% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. [7] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [8]
Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com gave the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote, "Sly Lives! isn't as eye-opening as Summer of Soul (a difficult hill to climb). But it's still a clear cut above your standard hagiographic music documentary. This film sees Sly as a three-dimensional person whose brilliance should neither absolve nor condemn him. It marvels at his genius and mourns the evaporation of his hitmaking talent. It is as vibrant, colorful, and catchy as any Sly and the Family Stone chart-topper." [9]
Ahmir K. Thompson, known professionally as Questlove, is an American drummer, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman for the hip-hop band the Roots. The Roots have been the in-house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since 2014, after having fulfilled the same role on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Questlove is also one of the producers of the 2015 cast album of the Broadway musical Hamilton. He has also co-founded of the websites Okayplayer and OkayAfrica. He joined Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University as an adjunct professor in 2016, and hosts the podcast Questlove Supreme.
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