Various artists

If the Independent Film Channel special this compilation takes its name from is correct, then Melvin Van Peebles saved Hollywood from collapse in the 1970s. His film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song kicked off a revolution in independent black movies whose images and sounds still reverberate in pop culture today. It’s not a soundtrack from the IFC documentary, but it contains enough slithering souladelic funk—driven by clattering clavinets, wah-wah guitars and congas—to power a fleet of pimpmobiles. From masters (James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes—“Truck Turner,” not “Shaft,” Edwin Starr), then-up-and-coming bands (Earth, Wind & Fire, War, Graham Central Station, B.T. Express), jazz crossover acts (Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gil Scott-Heron, the Blackbyrds) and such beautiful obscurities as William De Vaughn’s “Be Thankful for What You Got,” it delivers some real Corinthian leather.