The Chicago blues and soul singer Syl Johnson has died at 85, as CBS Chicago reports. The self-proclaimed “most sampled artist ever,” his 1967 track “Different Strokes,” which was included on the fourth volume of the compilation series Ultimate Breaks And Beats, is sampled in songs by Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Kanye West and Jay-Z, De La Soul, N.W.A., Eric B. and Rakim, and many more.

Johnson was born in 1936 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and he moved to Chicago with his family when he was a teenager. He started his solo recording career with Twilight/Twinight in the mid-’60s, which is about the time that “Different Strokes” came about. He continued putting out music throughout the rest of his life, including “Take Me To The River,” his most commercially successful single.

Johnson was the subject of a documentary, Syl Johnson: Any Way The Wind Blows, in 2015. His catalog has been reissued by the archival label Numero Group. “If any single artist could be considered a mascot for Numero, Mississippi-born soul man Syl Johnson was it,” the label reflected on social media. “He was the first major artist to give our humble Southside Chicago operation a shot—even if he did threaten to sue us in that first conversation. When he finally agreed to the idea of a box set of his earliest works, Syl demanded a greatness we’d yet to achieve, and constantly pushed us to be better than our basement environs suggested.”

“It is with extreme sadness that our family announces the passing of Soul & Blues Hall of Fame Legend, Syl Johnson (born Sylvester Thompson in Holly Springs, MS),” his family said in a statement. “Dad, Brother, Grandfather, Great Grandfather, Uncle, Friend & Artist, he lived his life as a singer, musician, and entrepreneur who loved black music.”