Legendary hip-hop poet and singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron has died.
The man behind an incredibly inspiring body of work which included the now-famous opus ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ was confirmed to have passed away by his publicist this morning. Known in the industry as ‘the black Bob Dylan’, Heron’s influence spanned over four decades and influenced a wide variety of artists in the genre, having been sampled and referenced numerous times by the likes of Talib Kweli and Common, most recently as the closer to Kanye West‘s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Scott-Heron’s most recent record, I’m New Here, was released to critical acclaim last year and the remix album with Jamie xx came out only a few months ago. His unique musical blend of political and social commentary became an early form of oral poetry that would go on to define modern rap. He was 62.
via P4K.
