Artists like Melvin Van Peebles

Bataan Nitollano, also known as Joe Bataan, is a Filipino-American Latin soul singer, songwriter and musician best known world-wide and in the Hispanic and Latino music scene as the "King of Latin Soul".

David Axelrod was an American composer, arranger, and producer. After starting out as a staff producer for record companies specializing in jazz, Axelrod became known by the mid-1960s in soul and jazz circles for his recording skills. In 1968, Axelrod embarked on a solo career and released several albums during the 1970s that showcased his characteristic sound, which combined heavily microphoned drums and baroque orchestration, and avant garde themes ranging from the environment to heightened mental awareness.

Gary Bartz is an American jazz saxophonist. He has won two Grammy Awards.

Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who Rolling Stone described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include "The Ghetto", "This Christmas", "Someday We'll All Be Free", and "Little Ghetto Boy". Hathaway is also renowned for his renditions of "A Song for You", "For All We Know", "Jealous Guy" and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", along with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of many collaborations with Roberta Flack. He has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and won one Grammy Award from four nominations. Hathaway was also posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Dutch director David Kleijwegt made a documentary called Mister Soul – A Story About Donny Hathaway, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 28, 2020.

Maze, also known as Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly and Frankie Beverly & Maze, is an American soul band founded by Frankie Beverly in Philadelphia in 1970. Under its original name Raw Soul, the band moved to San Francisco and was introduced to Marvin Gaye. Gaye took the group on the road with him as one of his opening acts, and in 1976, he suggested that they change their name from Raw Soul.

The Average White Band were a Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They were best known for their million-selling instrumental track "Pick Up the Pieces", and their albums AWB and Cut the Cake. The band name was initially proposed by Bonnie Bramlett. They have influenced others, such as the Brand New Heavies, and been sampled by various musicians, including the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, TLC, the Beatnuts, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Christina Milian, and Arrested Development, making them the 15th most sampled act in history.

James Walter Castor was an American funk, R&B and soul musician. He is credited with vocals, saxophone and composition. He is best known for songs such as "It's Just Begun", "The Bertha Butt Boogie", and his biggest hit single, the million-seller "Troglodyte ." Castor has been described as "one of the most sampled artists in music history" by the BBC.

The J.B.'s was James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s. On records, the band was sometimes billed under alternate names such as Fred Wesley and the JBs, The James Brown Soul Train, Maceo and the Macks, A.A.B.B., Fred Wesley and the New JBs, The First Family, and The Last Word. In addition to backing Brown, the J.B.'s played behind Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, and other singers associated with the James Brown Revue, and performed and recorded as a self-contained group. In 2015, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but failed to be inducted and can be considered for Musical Excellence in the future. They have been eligible since 1995.

Roy Edward Ayers Jr. was an American vibraphonist, record producer, and composer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several studio albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped to pioneer jazz-funk. He was a key figure in the acid jazz movement, and has been described as "The Godfather of Neo Soul". He was best known for his compositions "Everybody Loves the Sunshine", "Running Away", and "Freaky Deaky" and others that charted in the 1970s. At one time, Ayers was listed among the performers whose music was most often sampled by rappers.

Asha Puthli is an Indian-born American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress. She moved to New York from Mumbai with a dance scholarship, and in 1970, she was signed to CBS Records and subsequently released several solo albums. Her recordings cover blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco, and techno music. She also starred in films by Merchant Ivory and Bruno Corbucci. In 2025, Puthli was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The Bar-Kays is an American funk band formed in 1964. The band had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including "Soul Finger" in 1967, "Son of Shaft" in 1972, and "Boogie Body Land" in 1980. The Bar-Kays also served as the backing band for a variety of singers, including Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding.

Alice Russell is a British soul singer.

Marcus Ramone Cooper Sr, better known by his stage name Pleasure P, is an American R&B singer who experienced success as a member of the group Pretty Ricky before embarking on a solo career in 2007. His 2008 debut solo single "Did You Wrong" peaked at number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 while follow-up singles—"Boyfriend #2" and "Under" peaked at numbers 42 and 78 respectively—the former of which remains his highest charting song on the Hot 100. All three preceded the release of his debut studio album The Introduction of Marcus Cooper (2009), which peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200 and earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.