Celebrating Roberta Flack: A Timeless Appeal That Touched Soul, Hip-Hop and Beyond

“I didn’t try to be a soul singer, a jazz singer, a blues singer – no category,” Flack said in 2020. “My music is my expression of what I feel and believe in a moment.”

A classically trained pianist who received a full scholarship to Howard University at 15 years old, Flack, who was discovered by famed jazz pianist Les McCann, was genre-less and era-less; even in the rich and varied landscape of ’70s soul, Flack’s artistry felt unbound. So many of her songs wouldn’t have been out of place in radio rotations from 20 years earlier or 20 years later. She melded soul, jazz and pop in a way that made you question why anyone had ever separated them, and her voice was a uniquely expressive instrument.

The quietly graceful passion of Flack’s version of “The First Time Ever I Saw your Face” would serve as the singer, songwriter, pianist’s breakthrough; when actor and director Clint Eastwood used the song in its entirety in his Play Misty for Me in 1971. It had been originally released on her acclaimed debut album, First Take, released two years earlier. “…Ever I Saw Your Face” earned Flack her first Grammy. More No. 1 hits followed, like “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and Flack’s signature rendition of “Killing Me Softly With His Song” — a song that would forever connect her to hip-hop.

Roberta Flack’s legacy loomed large over the generation that came of age with hip-hop in the ‘80s and ‘90s. New jack swing superstar Al B Sure! offered his own take on “Killing Me Softly” in 1988, setting the pace for the classic to be reimagined by the hip-hop generation. Of course, the most famous revisiting of “Killing Me Softly” would come almost a decade later.

The Fugees' cover of “Killing Me Softly” was virtually inescapable in 1996, with Wyclef Jean hip-hop flourishes reinforcing Ms. Lauryn Hill’s beautifully emotive vocal performance. It established the Fugees as the ultimate crossover stars: a rap group that could cover a soul singer’s rendition of a pop song. And Roberta Flack herself gave them the ultimate co-sign when she performed alongside the Fugees at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards. It was a cross-generational collaboration that brought together rap Gen Xers and their Baby Boomer parents in a way that reminded all that Black music is deeply connected.

The revelatory musical kinship between Roberta Flack and her frequent collaborator Donny Hathaway, set a standard for soulful duets that has never been matched. Flack and Hathaway were musical soulmates who pushed each other to truly rarified heights with performances like “Where Is The Love” and “The Closer I Get to You.” Their impeccable “Be Real Black For Me” serves as the foundation for Scarface’s hood anthem “My Block,” and Beyoncé collaborated with the legendary Luther Vandross on a cover of “The Closer I Get To You.”

“We were deeply connected creatively,” Flack recalled in 2022 upon the 50th anniversary of their covers albumRoberta Flack & Donny Hathaway. “He could play anything, sing anything. Our musical synergy was unlike [anything] I’d had before or since.”

The beauty of Roberta Flack’s music was passed down to the hip-hop generation that came after her — a generation eager to take in her distinct brand of elegant soul.

Roberta Flack’s music is the backbone for T.I.’s “What You Know” (1970s “Gone Away”); Lil Kim’s “Queen Bitch” (1969s “That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”); “Spring Again” by Biz Markie (“Back Together Again” from 1979; “2nd Childhood” by Nas (1983’s “Born To Love”) — and a litany of other examples.

She would suffer a stroke in 2016, which left her bound to a wheelchair; and she announced in 2022 that she was battling ALS — commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — and Flack retired from performing. It was a quiet end to a luminous career: she’d earned five Grammys, including one for Lifetime Achievement; she’d dedicated herself to the Roberta Flack School of Music in New York and the Roberta Flack Foundation.

“I was a teacher before I was a professional musician,” she explained to Forbes in 2021. “My first job out of college was a teacher in the Washington DC public schools. When I considered what it meant to me to leave a legacy for future generations, I knew that meant more than just my catalog of recorded music, I wanted to provide young people with the opportunity to learn, grow and fully develop their minds. In 2006 I founded the Roberta Flack School of Music in the Bronx, which, thanks to funding from Prince, provided over 1000 children with music education for over 10 years.”

Roberta Flack made an undeniable mark on all who heard her records and saw her perform. We can’t ever lose her, even as millions of fans mourn her. Her grace and soul, her passion and talent, are inspiration and motivation to the artists and fans who are still listening. She provided a template for how to be an artist in full command of one’s creativity, and that’s a legacy that’s as impactful today as it was the first time we ever heard her voice.