Hayes began his recording career around 1962, soon swimming saxophone for The Mar-Keys. When the period of activity using Stax Records, Hayes released Presenting Isaac Hayes. the moderate profits, the album was recorded immediately resulting a untamed person.

A top-selling Hot Buttered Soul (1969) was the breakthrough album, & established his image (gold jewellery, shades, etc) which at length became a guide for very much of the fashion of gangsta rap and similar trends in the 1980s and 90s. Hayes' large hit was 1971's soundtrack to Shaft. A title song won an Oscar (a 1st for an African Western composer), & clearly presaged disco. Black Moses (1971) became almost when successful.

By 1975, Hayes left Stax Records and formed his own label known as Hot Buttered Soul Records. The series of stillborn albums led to Hayes' bankruptcy in 1976. A late 1970s saw a major comeback for Hayes, as a consequence a release of A Man and a Woman (1977, with Dionne Warwick). Around spite of moderate profits as a singer, Hayes' records did non sell super easily.

Despite Hayes' bankruptcy, he is too an actor in TV shows & feature. Whenever Shaft was being filmed, Hayes wanted a lead role, which attend Richard Roundtree; director Gordon Parks was impressed with Hot Buttered Soul where Hayes ended up scoring a film's music. In the 1970s and 1980s he had appeared around occasionally TV shows, including The Rockford Files and The A-Team. He appeared when a name part around Truck Turner (1974) (A merely film he ever experienced the leading role), The Duke of Up to date York around Escape from New York (1981), and when "Hammer" in ''I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).

Per late 1990s, he wwhen best known as a voice of Chef on South Park. a song from either the series performed by Chef, "Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You)", received a few international radio airplay around 1999 and subsequently appeared on the album Chef Aid: The South Park Album'' in 2002.

Hayes was inducted into a Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Witharound 2004, Hayes appeared in a revenant bit part when the Jaffa Tolok on the television series Stargate SG-1. A as a result season, he appeared in the critically acclaimed independent film Hustle & Flow.

Hayes is too an outspoken Scientologist, frequently identified by Scientology as a profits story & outstanding lesson of the caring results that Scientology potty bring. He has known as Scientology a "gateway to eternity" & "the path to happiness and total spiritual freedom."

Filmography
''Soul in Cinema: Filming 'Shaft' on Location (1971) (short subject) Save the Children (1973) (documentary) Wattstax (1973) (documentary) Truck Turner (1974) Three Tough Guys (1974) It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975) Escape from New York (1981) Counterforce (1987) Dead Aim (1987) I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) Fire, Ice & Dynamite (1989) (Cameo) Guilty as Charged (1991) Prime Target (1991) Final Judgement (1992) Deadly Exposure (1993) CB4 (1993) Posse (1993) Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Oblivion (1994) It Could Happen to You (1994) Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored (1995) Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996) Orientation: A Scientology Information Film (1996) (short subject) Flipper (1996) Illtown (1996) Uncle Sam (1997) Six Ways to Sunday (1997) Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) (Cameo) Ninth Street (1999) South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) (voice) Reindeer Games (2000) Shaft (2000) (Cameo) Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) (voice only) Chelsea Walls (2001) (Cameo) Only the Strong Survive (2002) (documentary) Soulsville (2003) (documentary) Dodge City: A Spaghetto Western (2004) Dream Warrior (2004) Return to Sleepaway Camp (2005) Hustle & Flow (2005) United'' (2005) (short subject)