Musician Gil Scott-Heron, whose politically-charged spoken-word music paved the way for modern rap, died yesterday. The writer of the seminal "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was 62 years old. Listen to a clip below.
Scott-Heron is known for his mix of minimalist percussion, often anchored by long-time collaborator pianist Brian Jackson, and highly expressive lyrics, a blend of poetry and politics which critiqued the superficiality of modern America, and chronicled inner-city living and "black America."
Born in Chicago, Scott-Heron moved to the Bronx when he was a teenager; in 1970, he released his breakthrough album, Small Talk At 125th and Lennox, which he recorded in Harlem, and which set the groundwork for the rest of his career, which included more than a dozen albums. In 1974, he released one of his most acclaimed records, Winter in America, which included the soul single "The Bottle."
He was often referred to as the "Godfather of Rap", a title he found lacked nuance: "If there was any individual initiative that I was responsible for it might have been that there was music in certain poems of mine, with complete progression and repeating 'hooks,' which made them more like songs than just recitations with percussion," he wrote in the introduction to his 1990 collection of poems, "Now and Then." Nevertheless, Kanye West cited him as a major inspiration, and sampled him on his songs "My Way Home" and "The People." Scott-Heron's final fantastic album, I'm New Here, was released last year. Check out the title track below:
