Music Bloodline

Gil Scott-Heron

Politically charged jazzy R&B singer of brilliant, enrapturing 1970s polemics, hugely influential on hip-hop.

Biography

Gil Scott-Heron was universally regarded as one of the founding fathers of rap for his combination of socially conscious poetry delivered over simple, percolating musical backdrops. He started out in the early '70s using little more than voice and percussion, but soon graduated to a much more sophisticated, jazzy style incorporating full-band arrangements. He was also a poet and novelist, whose depictions of modern urban life shared much with his political-critique lyrics. Ironically, the man who articulated the traps of the ghetto, including substance abuse, became a drug addict for whom his habit and subsequent jail time effectively derailed his brilliant career.