Editing Isaac Hayes (section)

===1974–1977: HBS, basketball team ownership, and bankruptcy===
By 1974, Stax Records was having serious financial problems, stemming from problems with overextension and limited record sales and distribution.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} Hayes himself was deep in debt to [[Union Planters|Union Planters Bank]], which administered loans for the Stax label and many of its other key employees. In September of that year, Hayes sued Stax for $5.3 million. As Stax was in deep debt and could not pay, the label made an arrangement with Hayes and Union Planters: Stax released Hayes from his recording and production contracts, and Union Planters would collect all of Hayes's income and apply it towards his debts.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Hayes formed his own label, Hot Buttered Soul, which released its product through [[ABC Records]].{{sfn|Bowman|1997|pp=332–334}} His new album, 1975's ''Chocolate Chip'', saw Hayes embrace the disco sound with the title track and lead single. "I Can't Turn Around" would prove a popular song as time went on. This would be Hayes's last album to chart in the top 40 for many years. Later in the year, the all-instrumental ''Disco Connection'' album fully embraced disco.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

On July 17, 1974, Hayes, along with [[Mike Storen]], [[Avron Fogelman]], and [[Kemmons Wilson]], took over ownership of the [[American Basketball Association (1967-1976)|American Basketball Association]] team the [[Memphis Tams]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.remembertheaba.com/memphis-sounds.html|access-date=July 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603044610/http://www.remembertheaba.com/memphis-sounds.html |archive-date=June 3, 2021|url-status=live|title=Memphis Sounds|website=Remember the ABA}}</ref> The prior owner was [[Charles O. Finley]], the owner of the [[Oakland A's]] baseball team. Hayes's group renamed the team the [[Memphis Sounds]]. Despite a 66% increase in home attendance, hiring well regarded coach [[Joe Mullaney (basketball)|Joe Mullaney]] and, unlike in the prior three seasons, making the [[1975 ABA Playoffs]] (losing to the eventual champion [[Kentucky Colonels]] in the Eastern Division semi-finals), the team's financial problems continued. The group was given a deadline of June 1, 1975, to sell 4,000 season tickets, obtain new investors and arrange a more favorable lease for the team at the [[Mid-South Coliseum]]. However, the group did not come through and the ABA took over the team, selling it to a group in Maryland that renamed the team the [[Baltimore Hustlers]] and then the [[Baltimore Claws]] before the club finally folded during preseason play for the 1975–1976 season.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.remembertheaba.com/Memphis-Sounds.html |title=Memphis Sounds |publisher=Remember the ABA |access-date=September 11, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043125/http://www.remembertheaba.com/Memphis-Sounds.html |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref>

In 1976, the ''Groove-A-Thon'' album featured the single "Rock Me Easy Baby" and the title track. Later the same year, the album cover of ''Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak)'' featured Hayes in a pool with naked women, and spawned the title track single and the classic "The Storm Is Over". However, while all these albums were regarded as solid efforts, Hayes was no longer selling large numbers. He and his wife were forced into bankruptcy in 1976, as they owed over $6 million. By the end of the bankruptcy proceedings in 1977, Hayes had lost his home, much of his personal property, and the rights to all future royalties earned from the music he had written, performed, and produced.{{sfn|Bowman|1997|p=334}}