Roots 'n' Rap

The Legendary Mr. Gil Scott-Heron

Professa R.A.P.

RPOTTER@grog.ric.edu

The name of Gil Scott-Heron came up recently on the funky-music list,

and I was surprised to see how many people are only dimly aware of

his revolutionary music. I mean, here is a brother who was dropping

prophetic raps back in 1970 with "The Revolution Will Not Be

Televised," who took on apartheid with "Johannesburg," and skewered

Reagan with "We don't need no Re-Ron." But how many people have

heard his first and most groundbreaking disc, "Small Talk at 125th

and Lenox"? How many people caught his jam with Ali Shaheed Muhammed

on 1994's "Spirits"? One of the few people on the planet with enough

authority teach the teachas, he delivered a "Message to the

Messengers" on that album that every rapper & DJ ought to give

another listen to right about now -- it's time for a history check,

so get out a pencil & paper and take down some notes ... on the

legendary Mr. Gil Scott-Heron.

Gil's name is often associated with the Last Poets, and there's no

doubt they influenced each other. As young artists starting out from

Harlem on the cusp of the 1960's, their early work shares more than

Afrocentric conga beats -- there's an urgency, a prophetic authority

here that few rappers today -- except maybe KRS-One or Chuck D --

could hold a candle to. Maybe it's because there are so few would-be

revolutionary brothers who really have their heads screwed on

straight, then or now. Gil had their number way back in 1970:

I think I know you would-be Black revolutionaries too well

Standing on a box on the corner,

Talking 'bout blowing the white boy away

That's not where it's at, yet -- brother

Calling this man an Uncle Tom and telling this woman to get an Afro

But you won't speak to her if she looks like hell, now will you,

brother?

Some of us been checkin' your act out kinda close

And by now it's lookin' kinda shaky

The way you been rushin' people with your Super Black bag

Jumping down on some Black men with both feet because they're after

their B.A.

But you're never around when your B.A. was in danger

I mean your Black Ass ...

This from "Brother," on _Small Talk at 125th and Lenox_. That album

is basically one long live jam, with Eddie Sanders and Charlie

Knowles armed with congas, and Gil with pieces of paper. No uzi-

toting gangstas of today pack half as much caliber as these three

guys alone on a stage in Harlem. Gil's thoughts run the gamut, from

streetcorner jive in the title track, through the deft irony of

"Plastic Pattern People," to the visceral "Who'll Pay Reparations on

my Soul?" There's some fancy footwork here and there, but most of

the time it's Gil's pointed use of the art of juxtaposition, a.k.a.

Signifyin', that gives these poems their edge. For instance,

everyone who rushed out to get "Apollo 13" on home video ought to

stop and give a listen to "Whitey on the Moon":

A rat done bit my sister Nell

With whitey on the moon

Her face and arms began to swell

And whitey's on the moon

I can't pay no doctor bills

And whitey's on the moon

Ten years from now, I'll be payin' still

While whitey's on the moon

You know, the man just upped my rent last night

'Cos whitey's on the moon

No hot water, no toilets, no lights

But whitey's on the moon

I wonder why he's uppin' me

'Cos whitey's on the moon?

Well, I was already givin' him fifty a week

And now whitey's on the moon

Taxes takin' my whole damn check

The junkies make me a nervous wreck

The price of food is goin' up

And as if all that crap wasn't enough

A rat done bit my sister Nell

With whitey on the moon ...

This shit is so much more on point -- and funnier -- than 90% of the

rhymes you hear today, it makes you wince. And never more than in

the classic "The Revolution will not be Televised," the earliest

version of which is heard here. Those who dissed KRS-One for pushing

Sprite couldn't do better than to sample a few lines from this jam:

The revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be right back after a message

about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people

You will not have to worry about a germ in your

bedroom, the tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl

The revolution will not go better with Coke

The revolution will not fight germs that can cause bad breath

The revolution WILL put you in the driver's seat

The revolution will not be televised, will no be televised

will not be televised

The revolution will be no re-run brothers

The revolution will be .... LIVE!

Lots of people today misinterpret this rap -- with a straight face,

they'll say, "what about live chopper shots of the L.A. Riots? The

Rodney King video?" Well, yeah, but what's the real point here?

Partly, it's that the revolution that really counts might be the

slower-burning one in your head, in your neighborhood, at your school

or family. And then again, the point might be that commercial

sponsors are *not* going to shell out a dime to sponsor anything

*really* revolutionary on television. Anyone who expects commercial

videos, commercial discs, or commercial commercials to contribute

anything to the cause, needs to check the channel. And finally,

anybody who thinks that the television coverage of the L.A. riots

told anything like the whole story ought to tear their eyes away from

the latest Hughes brothers flick and take a look outside.

I can't say enough about this disc -- and until last year, you could

only get it by shelling out $30 for a Japanese import. Now, thanks

to domestic versions on RCA/BMG, you can pick up _Lenox_ -- and Gil's

other early albums (_Pieces of a Man_, _Free Will_) for $9.99 to

$12.99 at most local music stores. Many -- too many -- of Gil's

discs are still out-of-print, but if you have a good used vinyl shop

in your area and are willing to hunt, you can still track most of his

records down, sometimes for surprisingly low prices.

For those who are just starting to listen to Gil, after "125th and

Lenox," you could pick up his old "Greatest Hits" collection on

Arista. This disc has the more familiar version of "The Revolution

Will Not be Televised," along with the classic "Johannesburg" --

which was my own introduction to Gil's artistry when I heard him play

it on an early episode of _Saturday Night Live_ about twenty years

ago. And would SNL put Gil -- or Paris, or PE, or the Coup -- on

their show today? Not likely. "Greatest Hits" also features a good

cross-section of Gil's work from the later 70's through the early

'80's. The jazzy anthem "The Bottle" takes a hard look at alcohol's

effect on the 'hood, from a time long before St. Ides brewed up their

black-appeal marketing campaigns. "Winter in America," from 1974,

takes on the blight of "a nation that just can't stand much more."

"Re-Ron" takes on Reagan ("doesn't he look like himself, back in the

saddle again . . was Maggie Thatcher Reagan in drag?") and shows the

sonic influence of old-school electro-funk beats on Scott-Heron's

funky jazz. "Shut 'em Down" will sound familiar to PE fans, though

the culprit here is nuclear power plants. "Angel Dust" gives Gil's

scan on the PCP rage, with slow, funky beat that could well be

sampled by any latter-day Dre.

Speaking of sampling, despite Gil's appearance here and there (the

Coup, among others, has used snippets of his voice), he hasn't been

sampled as often as you'd think. Maybe it has something to do with

his own outlook towards rap and sampling; while he recognizes his

role as a hip-hop forebear, he's no fan of sampled beats. In a 1992

interview with the SOURCE, he was asked if he had any advice for the

rappers of today, and responded "Yeah, learn to play some

instruments." Yet despite this, Gil's own music has clearly

influenced and been influenced by hip-hop, a fact that was made

especially evident in 1994's overlooked comeback effort, _Spirits_.

In that album's "Don't Give Up," Gil even collaborated with ATCQ's

Ali Shaheed Muhammed, and the results are a perfect blend of jazz

feel and hip-hop attitude. And, in his "Message to the Messengers,"

Gil drops wisdom as an elder statesman, telling the hip-hop nation

...

I ain't comin' at you with no disrespect,

All I'm sayin' is that you damn well got to be correct

Because if you're gonna be speaking for a whole generation

And you know enough to try and handle their education

Be sure you know the real deal about past situations

And ain't just repeatin' what you heard on the local TV station.

Sometimes they tell lies and put 'em in a truthful disguise

But the truth is, that's why we said it wouldn't be televised

They don't know what to say to our young folks, but they know that you

do

And if they really knew the truth, why would they tell you?

And if they look at you like you're insane

And they start callin' you scarecrow and say you ain't got no brain

Or start tellin' folks that you suddenly gone lame

Or that white folks have finally co-opted your game

Or worse yet, implying that you don't really know

That's the same thing they said about us a long time ago ...

Gil's voice is a low rumble here, deeper that before, with a

resonance that comes from hard history, personal and collective.

It's not quite clear what he spent the ten years between 1984 (his

last original album before _Spirits_) and 1994, but there's no

question it's been a struggle, and that the return to his music is

part of his redemption. This is especially clear in the potent

refrain of "Don't Give Up"; over Ali Shaheed Muhammed's cool jazzy

loops, Gil calls on the spirits that have sustained him:

I say to them

Don't give up

It's time to stop your falling

You've been down long enough

Can't you hear the spirits calling

Yeah it's the spirits

Can't you hear it?

Spirits ...

Gil has sustained this spirit throughout his long career, most

recently on the live disc "Minister of Information," released last

year on the Castle label. Check out the live version of Gil's own

Chocolate City anthem to Washington D.C. Over Robbie Gordon's funky

bass and Ron Holloway's sweeping sax, Gil's creaky baritone sounds

stronger than ever:

It may not have the glitter or the glamour of L.A.

It may not have the history or the intrigue of Bombay

But when it comes to making music

Instead of making news

People who just don't make sense

And people makin' do

It's a ball of contradiction

Pullin' different ways

Between the folks who come and go, and the ones who got to stay

It's a mass of irony

For all the world to see

It's the nation's capitol

It's Washington D.C.

Damn. This is what music should be all about -- strong, funky, and

tinged with all kinds of flavor, not easily distilled into any one

genre, more of a genre all its own. On the liner notes to Spirits,

Gil comes as close as he ever has to defining the undefinable:

"Collectively, at various times, we have called what we did

Midnight Music, Third World Music, and Bluesology.

Seriously trying to define it, I've said it's Black music,

or Black American music. Because Black Americans are now a

tremendously diverse essence of all the places we've come

from and the music and rhythms we brought with us. And it

has been our way of paying tribute and offering respect that

we have included the many facets of the community ... "

Enough said. All I can add is, that if you haven't heard the music

of Mr. Gil Scott-Heron, then you're missing a large part of what

music is all about -- not just a forebear of hip-hop, but a messenger

of jazz, blues, and poetry, and the spiritual force behind them all.

Get yourself out to a store and pick up some of this music -- or, if

you have it on your shelf already, listen to it again -- for the

first time.

****************

In the discography that follows, I've listed catalog numbers only for

what's currently available in the U.S. -- but all of these records

are worth tracking down.

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Gil Scott-Heron: Semi-Complete Discography

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compiled by Russell A. Potter (RPOTTER@grog.ric.edu)

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1970 SMALL TALK AT 125TH & LENOX -- RCA 66611-2 (CD)

1971 PIECES OF A MAN -- RCA 66627-2 (CD)

1972 FREE WILL -- RCA 66628-2 (CD)

1974 THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED -- BMG 6994-2 (CD)

1974 WINTER IN AMERICA -- (Import Only)

1975 First Minute of a New Day -- Out of Print

1975 From South Africa to South Carolina -- Out of Print

1976 It's Your World Tour -- Out of Print

1977 Bridges -- Out of Print

1978 Secrets -- (Japan Import Only)

1979 The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron -- Out of Print

1980 1980 -- Out of Print

1980 Real Eyes -- Out of Print

1981 Reflections -- (Japan Import Only)

1982 Moving Target -- Out of Print

1984 THE BEST OF GIL SCOT-HERON -- Arista 18306-2 (CD)

1994 SPIRITS -- TVT Records TVT4310 (CD)

1996 MINISTER OF INFORMATION (LIVE) -- Castle CCSSD 403 (CD)