Gil Scott-Heron

A rap pioneer and social chronicler, Gil Scott-Heron was one of the leading voices of African-American protest. Born in Chicago on April 1, 1949, he grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, before moving to New York. After studying at university, where he discovered the African-American writer Langston Hughes, Scott-Heron made his literary debut with the novel The Vulture and the essay The Nigger Factory (1972). At the same time, Scott-Heron's musical career began to take off, with the poetic collection Small Talk at 125th & Lenox (1969), released on the Flying Dutchman label. In 1971, Pieces of a Man was recorded with a larger team of musicians, including a new version of the social manifesto "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", which became an African-American anthem. His collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Brian Jackson, whom he had met during his studies, continued on Winter of America (1974) and its hit "The Bottle", From South Africa to South Carolina (1975), It's Your World (live, 1976) and Bridges (1977), combining spoken word, jazz-funk, soul, blues and committed lyrics, such as the one on apartheid in "Johannesburg". Meanwhile, the singer formed the Midnight Band for the album The First Minute of a New Day (1975) and a tour. After the release of two solo albums, Secrets (1978) and the aptly named 1980, Scott-Heron went on tour with Stevie Wonder. However, his drug addiction thwarted his career and his relationship with the Arista label, which parted company with him in 1985. Withdrawing from the scene for a decade, the artist signed with TVT Records and recorded the album Spirits (1994), but personal problems resurfaced with several incarcerations in prison for drug use and domestic violence. Returning to Richard Russell's XL Recordings label in 2010, he recorded his electro-tinged swan song I'm New Here, remixed by Jamie Smith of The xx under the title We're New Here. On May 27, 2011, Gil Scott-Heron died at the age of 62 from complications related to HIV. Unreleased tracks surfaced in 2015 on the album Nothing New. In 2021, he is posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.