For decades, Sly had been one of music’s great cautionary tales. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Sly and his band, the Family Stone, effectively ruled over American popular music, but by the middle part of the 1970s,

In a fascinating new documentary on Hulu, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson turns the enduring myth of Sly Stone into a very human story.

The new documentary “Sly Lives, aka the Burden of Black Genius,” which focuses on the life and career of the brilliant but troubled musician Sly Stone and his group Sly and the Family Stone, is both a conventional documentary and an extremely unconventional one.

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson says that telling Sly Stone's story with empathy was a way to open a conversation about Black artists and mental health.

In SLY LIVES!, Questlove documents the genius of a funk trailblazer — and the pressure Sly felt as a Black artist. "Sly will be ... the first domino in a long list of people that will self-sabotage."

What is Black genius?” It’s a slightly sideways question that results in some blank looks, but the filmmaker’s point is this: The bar for Black artists is so high that only a genius can clear it. What’s more,

Questlove’s follow-up to "Summer of Soul" is a darker film that explores the question through the famous frontman of Sly & the Family Stone.