Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron ranks among rap music's foundational figures, his direct and uncompromising street poetry fusing politically engaged activism, cultural insight, pointed argument, and societal observation in ways that spurred a wave of thoughtful rappers forward. His distinctive songwriting, frequently developed alongside longtime associate Brian Jackson, earned placements on the jazz charts and, later, the R&B charts. Early releases such as 1971's Pieces of a Man and 1975's Winter in America highlighted both his spoken-word commentary and his aptitude for conventional songcraft, securing a contract with Clive Davis's emerging Arista Records. Alongside Jackson and the Midnight Band, he produced landmark jazz-funk recordings like 1975's First Minute of a New Day, It's Your World (1976), and Bridges (1977), each charting in the upper half of the Billboard 200; between 1974 and 1980 the collective placed nine albums on that tally. The ensemble also scored R&B airplay with the singles "Angel Dust" and "Shut 'Em Down."

After the group disbanded in 1980, Scott-Heron assembled the Amnesia Express to serve as both touring and recording unit. He remained with Arista through the 1982 album Moving Target. Following twelve years without new studio work, marked by personal difficulties and sporadic live appearances, he reentered the studio in 1994 to release Spirits. Fifteen years after that, he joined Richard Russell's XL Recordings and issued the widely praised I'm New Here in 2010. A collaborative remix edition with Jamie xx, We're New Here, appeared in 2011, only a month before Scott-Heron's death.

Although born in Chicago, Scott-Heron moved to Tennessee during childhood and spent the bulk of his high-school years in the Bronx, where he directly encountered many of the situations that later shaped his lyrics. He had already begun writing before adolescence and finished his first poetry collection at age thirteen. After a single year at college in Pennsylvania he withdrew to focus on writing, receiving recognition for the novel The Vulture.

At the close of the 1960s, legendary jazz producer Bob Thiele—who had recorded with figures from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane—encouraged Scott-Heron to enter the studio; the resulting 1970 debut, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, drew from a poetry volume of the same name. After several projects for Thiele's Flying Dutchman label through the mid-seventies, Scott-Heron moved to Arista and achieved R&B-chart success. Even as early-seventies jazz-rooted material gave way to smoother, disco-influenced production, the clarity of his message remained evident on the Top 30 single "Johannesburg" and the number-15 hit "Angel Dust." Following nearly a decade of silence, the proto-rapper resurfaced in the mid-nineties with the 1984 single "Re-Ron," addressed to the gangsta rappers who followed him, while his 1994 album Spirits opened with "Message to the Messengers," aimed squarely at artists whose influence—positive or negative—shaped nineties youth.

In an ironic twist he often acknowledged with humor, Gil Scott-Heron entered the world on April Fool's Day 1949 in Chicago, son of a Jamaican professional soccer player who appeared for Glasgow Celtic and a college-educated librarian mother. His parents separated early; he was raised by his grandmother in Lincoln, Tennessee, absorbing musical and literary guidance from her while also confronting prejudice as one of three children chosen to integrate an elementary school in nearby Jackson. The experience proved overwhelming, and as an eighth grader he relocated to New York to live with his mother, first in the Bronx and later in Chelsea's Hispanic community.

Despite the hardships of his Tennessee years, those experiences planted the seeds of his writing; his first poetry volume dates from that period. New York schooling further enriched him, exposing him to Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes and to LeRoi Jones. After publishing the novel The Vulture in 1968, he enrolled at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University, where he met Brian Jackson, a kindred musician who would become a central collaborator and core member of Scott-Heron's band. Magazine coverage, including an Essence notice calling The Vulture "a strong start for a writer with important things to say," helped lead to an introduction with Bob Thiele and the decision to pursue music. Small Talk at 125th and Lenox captured Scott-Heron reciting poetry over a collective of jazz and funk players that included bassist Ron Carter, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, flutist and alto saxophonist Hubert Laws, and percussionists Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders, with Jackson on piano. The album's landmark track, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," delivered a fierce indictment of mainstream media and white America's disregard for worsening inner-city conditions. His follow-up, 1971's Pieces of a Man, broadened his scope with more structured songs such as the title track and "Lady Day and John Coltrane."

Free Will in 1972 concluded his Flying Dutchman tenure; after a label dispute he recorded Winter in America for Strata East before signing with Arista in 1975. As Clive Davis's first artist on the new imprint, expectations ran high for chart-viable material. A concentrated promotional effort propelled "Johannesburg" to number 29 on the R&B chart that year. Keyboardist and collaborator Jackson proved essential to the first two Arista albums, First Minute of a New Day and From South Africa to South Carolina, receiving co-billing and serving as de facto leader of the Midnight Band. Jackson departed in 1978, after which producer Malcolm Cecil—previously involved with the Isley Brothers and Stevie Wonder—steered a funkier direction. The initial Cecil collaboration, "The Bottle," became Scott-Heron's biggest R&B success to that point, reaching number 15, though pop crossover remained elusive. Chic's Nile Rodgers contributed to eighties productions as Scott-Heron's political focus sharpened on President Ronald Reagan; several singles, among them the R&B hits "B Movie" and "Re-Ron," targeted the administration's conservative agenda. Dropped by Arista after The Best of Gil Scott-Heron in 1985, he continued touring globally yet ceased recording. A 1993 return yielded a TVT contract and the album Spirits.

For more than a decade thereafter, drug-possession charges kept him largely inactive. Semi-regular performances resumed in 2007; the following year he disclosed his HIV-positive status. Studio work recommenced in 2005. He met XL Recordings head Richard Russell in 2007, signed with the label, and completed the acclaimed I'm New Here, released in early 2011. In February of that year Scott-Heron and Jamie xx issued the remix project We're New Here. Later in 2011 he died in a New York hospital shortly after returning from European live dates.

On February 7, 2020, XL marked the tenth anniversary of I'm New Here with a limited-edition expanded release that added two previously unreleased tracks—a cover of Richie Havens' "Handsome Johnny" and the unheard Scott-Heron composition "King Henry IV"—plus further recordings from the original sessions that had appeared only on a vinyl-only deluxe edition. The same day, XL also released Makaya McCraven's We're New Again: A Reimagining, in which the Chicago drummer, conceptualist, and composer presented his own reinterpretation of Scott-Heron's final album.