During the same week that Bob Dylan celebrated his 70th birthday; we were sadly informed that poet and singer song writer Gil Scot-Heron passed away at the age of 62. Now these two immensely influential musical giants had some similarities. The first one being that they were regarded for speaking up against an oppressive system. Dylan championed the 60s movement of peace and equality. His folk songs early in his career where used as protest songs by hippies and people alike. Bob Dylan did abandon this by going electric and writing increasingly surreal lyrics that will alienate his crowd.
Gil Scott-Heron on the other hand spoke about the issues that were of primary concern to the African-American community. He did this through poetry and by music as well. Some of the books of poetry that he released included “The Vulture” and “Small Talk at 125th and Lennox”. Some of his albums include “Pieces of a Man” and “Winter in America”. Gil Scott-Heron had a very charismatic style and he was one of those speakers who had great command of his words. This was illustrated on his most famous song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. The song is a stone cold classic. A song that grimly depicted the conditions of urban African-Americans and it does not make any secrets about putting a stop to that. I still feel chills listening to this song; though I have listened to it a ton of times.
Gil Scott Heron went on to influence genres such as Hip-Hop and Soul. Not only for the fact that he represented African-Americans but because his work had a rhythmic and soulful quality that complements these musical genre. Many hip-hop artists incorporated his material in their music, with one of the most notable being Kanye West. West sample the song “Home is where the Hatred is” for his song “Home’ which is found on the album Late Registration. In addition to that Kanye West used the spoken word portion of “Comment #1’ for the closer of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, “Who Will Survive America”. Other artists such as MF Doom, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Common have cited Heron as a major influence. Dance-Punk band LCD Sound System also gave Gil Scott Heron a memorable nod on their breakthrough single “Losing my Edge”.
Heron’s words still resonate today because we are still facing the same socio-economic issues that he spoke about in the 1970s. The economy is in limbo, leaving a lot of people stranded without jobs or a sense of security. Racial problems still linger whether people face up to it or not. So it was no surprise that Gil Scott-Heron had a major come back in 2010 delivering the grossly underrated album “I’m New Here”. This was a great album that reintroduced Heron to a younger audience. It incorporated a more electronic and minimalistic style instead of his previous soul-jazz sound.
The album featured the single “New York is Killing Me”, a song highly acclaimed by critics. “I’m New Here” was remixed by Jamie XX of The XX and was released under the title “We’re New Here”. The remixed version of the album was just about as good as the original. Jamie XX incorporated dub-step into the sound and even went as far as using old samples from the Gil Scott Heron’s previous work in the 70s. It was awesome to hear a legend collaborating with a young and promising producer. As sad as it was to hear about his death; it was great knowing that he went out swinging. He passed after releasing some of his best material in decades; an achievement many great artists fail to accomplish. I hope that his words and music will continue inspire and influencing future generations.
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