Gil, or GIL may refer to:

Places[link]

• Gil Island (disambiguation), one of several islands by that name
• Gil, Azerbaijan (disambiguation), places named Gil in Azerbaijan

People[link]

Given name[link]

• Gil Amelio, technology executive and former CEO of Apple Inc.
• Gil Baiano, Brazilian footballer
• Gil Elvgren, pin-up artist
• Gil Evans, jazz pianist
• Gil Fronsdal, American Buddhist teacher
• Gil Gerard, American, actor and star of "Buck Rogers"
• Gil Hayes, professional wrestler
• Gil Heron, Jamaican soccer player
• Gil Hodges (d. 1972), former manager of the New York Mets
• Gil Kane, comic book artist
• Gil Kezwer, Canadian journalist
• Gil Meche, American, pitcher for the Kansas City Royals
• Gil Ofarim, German pop singer / band vocalist and former teen idol
• Gil Perkins, Australian film and television actor
• Gilberto Ribeiro Gonçalves, (nicknamed Gil), Brazilian footballer
• Gil Santos, American radio commentator for the New England Patriots
• Gil Schwartz, pen name of Stanley Bing, business humorist and novelist
• Gil Shwed (born 1952), Israeli programmer and entrepreneur
• Gil Scott-Heron, American spoken word performer and rap pioneer (d. 2011)
• Gil Semedo, Capverdean singer
• Gil Simkovitch (born 1982), Israeli Olympic sport shooter
• Gil Stein (archaeologist)
• Gil Stein (sports administrator)

Surname[link]

• Ariadna Gil, Spanish actress
• Frederico Gil, Portuguese tennis player
• Gilberto Gil, singer and songwriter, former Minister of Culture of Brazil
• Gus Gil (born 1939), Venezuelan baseball player
• Jesús Gil, Spanish politician and businessman (1933–2004)
• Nikki Gil, Filipina actress
• Tomas Gil (born 1977), Venezuelan track and road cyclist
• Seong-jun Gil (길성준, born 1977), South Korean musician
• Enrique Gil Filipino Actor

Fiction[link]

• Gil Grissom, character on American TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, played by actor William Petersen
• A recurring character on the animated TV series The Simpsons, Gil Gunderson
• In the fictional Star Trek universe, Gil is a Cardassian military rank
• Gil Chesterton, a supporting character on the TV sitcom Frasier
• A character in the 1985 arcade game The Tower of Druaga, Gil
• Gil, a character in the manga Dragon Knights
• Gil, the currency of Final Fantasy games
• A character in the preschool show Bubble Guppies

Politics[link]

• Gil (political party), in the Israeli Knesset, is the Pensioners' Party.
• Independent Liberal Group (Grupo Independiente Liberal in Spanish), a former Spanish political party
• Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (Italian Youth of the Lictor), youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy.

Other uses[link]

• Gilbertese language ISO 639 code
• Computing:
  • Generic Image Library, a generic programming library for image processing by Adobe Systems
  • Global Interpreter Lock, in interpreter programs

See also[link]

• Gill (disambiguation)
• Gilbert (disambiguation)
• Gilberto

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Chris Cunningham is a British music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk.

The video collection The Work of Director Chris Cunningham was released in November 2004 as part of the Directors Label set. This DVD includes selected highlights from 1995–2000.

Early work[link]

After seeing Cunningham's work on the 1994 film version of Judge Dredd, Stanley Kubrick head-hunted Cunningham^[1] to design and supervise animatronic tests of the central robot child character in his version of the film A.I. Cunningham worked for over a year on the film A.I., before leaving to pursue a career as a director.

Earlier work in film included model making, prosthetic make-up and concept illustrations for Hardware and Dust Devil with director Richard Stanley, as well as Nightbreed. In 1990–1992 he contributed the occasional cover painting and strip for Judge Dredd Megazine, working under the pseudonym Chris Halls, the surname of his stepfather.^[2]

Music videos[link]

Cunningham has had close ties to Warp Records since his first production for Autechre. Videos for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" are perhaps his best known. His video for Björk's "All Is Full of Love" won multiple awards, including an MTV music video award for Breakthrough Video and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. It was also the first ever music video to win a Gold Pencil at the D&AD Awards. It can still be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His video for Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" was nominated for the "Best Video" award at the Brit Awards 2000. He also directed Madonna's "Frozen" video which became an international hit and won the award for Best Special Effects at the 1998 MTV Music Video Awards.

Video art[link]

His video installation Flex was first shown in 2000 at the Royal Academy of Arts, and subsequently at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery and other art galleries. Flex was commissioned by the Anthony d'Offay Gallery for the Apocalypse: Beauty & Horror in Contemporary Art exhibition curated by Norman Rosenthal and Max Wigram at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2000.

The Anthony d'Offay Gallery also commissioned Monkey Drummer, a 2½ minute piece intended for exhibition as a companion to Flex at the 2000 Apocalypse exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, however the piece was not finished in time. In it an automaton with nine appendages and the head of a monkey plays the drums to "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount", the 10th track on Aphex Twin's 2001 album drukqs. Monkey Drummer debuted as part of Cunningham's installation at the 49th International Exhibition of Art at the 2001 Venice Biennale, which consisted of a loop of Monkey Drummer, Flex, and his video for Björk's "All Is Full of Love".^[3]

In 2007, an excerpt from Flex was shown in the Barbican's exhibition Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now curated by Martin Kemp, Marina Wallace and Joanne Bernstein. alongside other pieces by Bacon, Klimt, Rembrandt, Rodin and Picasso.^[4]

Short films[link]

In 2005, Cunningham released the short film Rubber Johnny as a DVD accompanied by a book of photographs and drawings. Rubber Johnny, a six-minute experimental short film cut to a soundtrack by Aphex Twin, remixed by Cunningham was shot between 2001 and 2004. Shot on DV night-vision, it was made in Cunningham's own time as a home movie of sorts, and took three and half years of weekends to complete. The Telegraph called it "like a Looney Tunes short for a generation raised on video nasties and rave music".^[5]

During this period Cunningham also made another short film for Warp Films, Spectral Musicians, which remains unreleased. The short film was edited to music by Squarepusher, My Fucking Sound, from the album Go Plastic and a piece called Mutilation Colony,^[6] which was written especially for the short and was released on the EP Do You Know Squarepusher.

Commercials[link]

Cunningham has directed a handful of commercials for companies including Gucci, PlayStation, Levis, Telecom Italia, Nissan and Orange.

Music production[link]

In 2004/2005, Cunningham took a sabbatical from filmmaking to learn about music production and recording and to develop his own music projects.

In December 2007 Cunningham produced two tracks, "Three Decades" and "Primary Colours", for Primary Colours, the second album by The Horrors.^[7] In the summer of 2008, due to scheduling conflicts with his feature film script writing he couldn't work on the rest of the album which was subsequently recorded by Geoff Barrow from Portishead.

In 2008, he produced and arranged a new version of 'I Feel Love' for the Gucci commercial that he also directed. He travelled to Nashville to work with Donna Summer to record a brand new vocal for it.^[8]

[edit] Chris Cunningham Live

In 2005, Cunningham played a 45 minute audio visual piece performed live in Tokyo and Osaka in front of 30,000+ fans over the two nights at Japan’s premier electronic music event Electraglide. These performances evolved into Chris Cunningham Live, a 55 minute long performance piece combining original and remixed music and film. It features remixed, unreleased and brand new videos and music dynamically edited together into a new live piece spread over three screens. The sound accompanying these images includes Cunningham’s first publicly performed compositions interspersed with his remixes of other artist’s work. Chris Cunningham Live debuted as one of the headline attractions at Warp 20 in Paris on May 8, 2009 with other performances scheduled at festivals in UK, and a number of European cities later in the year.

Photography[link]

Cunningham has created photography and cover artwork for various people including Björk's "All Is Full of Love", Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" and "Come to Daddy".

In 2008, Cunningham produced a fashion shoot for Dazed & Confused using Grace Jones as a model to create "Nubian versions" of Rubber Johnny.^[9] In an interview for BBC's "The Culture Show", it was suggested that the collaboration may expand into a video project.^[10]

In November 2008, Cunningham followed on with another photoshoot for Vice Magazine.^[11]

[edit] Neuromancer

In 2000, Cunningham and cyberpunk author William Gibson began work on the script for Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer. However, because Neuromancer was due to be a big budget studio film, it is rumoured that Cunningham pulled out due to being a first time director without final cut approval.^{[citation needed]} He also felt that too much of the original book's ideas had been cannibalised by other recent films.^{[citation needed]}

On November 18, 2004, in the FAQ on the William Gibson Board, Gibson was asked:

Q: Is it true there's a movie of Neuromancer in the works? A: Perpetually, it seems, and going on a quarter of a century now. The most recently rumoured version, to have been directed by Chris Cunningham, is now definitely not happening.^[12]

In an August 1999 Spike Magazine interview, Gibson stated "He (Chris) was brought to my attention by someone else. We were told, third-hand, that he was extremely chary of the Hollywood process, and wouldn't return calls. But someone else told us that Neuromancer had been his Wind In The Willows, that he'd read it when he was a kid. I went to London and we met." Gibson is also quoted in the article as saying "Chris is my own 100 per cent personal choice...My only choice. The only person I've met who I thought might have a hope in hell of doing it right. I went back to see him in London just after he'd finished the Bjork video, and I sat on a couch beside this dead sex little Bjork robot, except it was wearing Aphex Twin's head. We talked."^[13]

It is rumoured that the character of Damien Pease in Gibson's 2003 novel Pattern Recognition was based on Cunningham, with the character's apartment featuring a female robot which had appeared in one of Cunningham's videos.

Development funding was in place for Cunningham to direct and co-write his first feature film for Warp Films, to whom he was at the time committed "for all future full-length film projects." He has since left Warp Films to set up his own production company 'CC Co' to produce his films independently.

Videography[link]

• "Second Bad Vilbel" (1996) video for Autechre
• "Back With The Killer Again" (1996) video for The Auteurs
• "Light Aircraft on Fire" (1996) video for The Auteurs
• "Another Day" (1996) video for Lodestar
• "Space Junkie" (1996) video for Holy Barbarians
• "36 Degrees" (1996) video for Placebo
• "Personally" (1997) video for 12 Rounds
• "Jesus Coming in for the Kill" (1997) video for Lives Addiction
• "The Next Big Thing" (1997) video for Jesus Jones
• "Tranquillizer" (1997) video for Geneva
• "No More Talk" (1997) video for Dubstar
• "Something To Say" (1997) video for Jocasta
• "Come To Daddy" (1997) video for Aphex Twin
• "Only You" (1998) video for Portishead
• "Frozen" (1998) video for Madonna
• "Come On My Selector" (1998) video for Squarepusher
• "All Is Full of Love" (1999) video for Björk
• "Windowlicker" (1999) video for Aphex Twin
• "Afrika Shox" (1999) video for Leftfield and Afrika Bambaataa
• "Mental Wealth" (1999) commercial for PlayStation
• "Flex" (2000), using sounds created by Aphex Twin
• "Monkey Drummer" (2001), using "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels mount" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
• "Rubber Johnny" (2005), using "Afx237 V7" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
• "Sheena Is A Parasite" (2006), video for The Horrors
• "Gucci Flora" (2009) commercial for Gucci Perfume
• "New York Is Killing Me" (2010) video for Gil Scott-Heron

References[link]

External links[link]

• Chris Cunningham at the Internet Movie Database
• Music Video Database entry
• Director File - Chris Cunningham documents all of Chris' work
• DirectorsLabel.com - co-founded with Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry
• 2000 AD profile
• 2005 interview
• Gucci Flora film
• Chris' official website

Gil Scott-Heron
Scott-Heron in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Gilbert Scott-Heron
Born	(1949-04-01)April 1, 1949 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	May 27, 2011(2011-05-27) (aged 62) New York City, U.S.[1]
Genres	Soul,[2] jazz poetry,[3] jazz, blues,[4] spoken word soul, jazz-funk, proto-rap
Occupations	Poet, singer, songwriter, author
Instruments	Vocals, electric piano, guitar
Years active	1969–2011
Labels	RCA, Flying Dutchman, Strata East, Arista, TVT, XL
Associated acts	Brian Jackson, Ron Holloway, Jamie xx, Musicians United for Safe Energy, Black and Blues

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011)^[5] was an American soul and jazz poet,^[2][3] musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist",^[4] which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues."^{[note 1][6]} His music, most notably on Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul.

In addition to being widely considered an influence in today's music, Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, "The Last Holiday", was also published, posthumously on January 2012.^[7][8]

His recording work received much critical acclaim, especially one of his best-known compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". His poetic style was influential upon every generation of hip hop since his popularity began.^[9]

Early years[link]

Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois.^[4] His mother, Bobbie Scott-Heron, was an opera singer who performed with the New York Oratorio Society. Scott-Heron's father, Gil Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow," was a Jamaican soccer player in the 1950s who became the first black athlete to play for the Glasgow Celtic Football Club. Gil's parents separated in his early childhood^[10] and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother, Lillie Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee.^[11][12] When Scott-Heron was 12 years old, his grandmother died and he returned to live with his mother in the Bronx, New York City. He enrolled at DeWitt Clinton High School,^[10] but later transferred to The Fieldston School^[4] after impressing the head of the English department with one of his writings and earning a full scholarship.^[10] As one of five black students at the prestigious school, Scott-Heron was faced with alienation and a significant socioeconomic gap. During his admissions interview at Fieldston, an administrator asked him, “'How would you feel if you see one of your classmates go by in a limousine while you're walking up the hill from the subway?' And [he] said, 'Same way as you. Y'all can't afford no limousine. How do you feel?'"^[13] This type of intractable boldness would become a hallmark of Scott-Heron’s later recordings.

Scott-Heron attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, as it was the college chosen by his biggest influence Langston Hughes. It was here that Scott-Heron met Brian Jackson with whom he formed the band Black & Blues. After about two years at Lincoln, Scott-Heron took a year off to write the novels The Vulture and The Nigger Factory.^[14] The Last Poets performed at Lincoln in 1969 and Abiodun Oyewole of that Harlem group said Scott-Heron asked him after the performance, "Listen, can I start a group like you guys?"^[10] Scott-Heron returned to New York City, settling in Chelsea, Manhattan. The Vulture was published in 1970 and well received. Although Scott-Heron never received his undergraduate degree, he received a Master's degree in Creative Writing in 1972 from Johns Hopkins University. His 1972 masters thesis was titled Circle of stone.^[15]

Recording career[link]

"Small Talk at 125th and Lenox" noicon The early live recording from Scott-Heron's debut album features spoken word vocal delivery and African-style congas. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" noicon One of his best-known compositions contains hip hop elements such as rapping, cultural and political references, heavy drumbeats, and minimalist production. "The Bottle" noicon Winter in America's only single, a rhythmic social commentary with Scott-Heron on keyboards and Brian Jackson playing flute. Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Scott-Heron began his recording career in 1970 with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records produced the album, and Scott-Heron was accompanied by Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders on conga and David Barnes on percussion and vocals. The album's 15 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries, and white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and the pianist who would become his long-time collaborator, Brian Jackson.

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Johnny Pate (conductor), Brian Jackson on keyboards, piano, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor). Carter later said about Scott-Heron's voice, "He wasn’t a great singer, but, with that voice, if he had whispered it would have been dynamic. It was a voice like you would have for Shakespeare.”^[10]

1974 saw another LP collaboration with Brian Jackson, the critically acclaimed opus Winter in America, with Bob Adams on drums and Danny Bowens on bass. The album contained Scott-Heron's most cohesive material and featured more of Jackson's creative input than his previous albums had. Winter in America has been regarded by many critics as the two musicians' most artistic effort.^[16][17] The following year, Scott-Heron and Jackson also released Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day. A live album, It's Your World, followed in 1976 and a recording of spoken poetry, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron, was released in 1979. In the July 1976 Bicentennial issue of Playboy Scott-Heron was profiled; the accompanying artwork shows Scott-Heron singing or speaking into a microphone as it melts from the heat of his words.^{[citation needed]} Another hit success followed with the hit single "Angel Dust", which he recorded as a single with producer Malcolm Cecil. "Angel Dust" peaked at No.15 on the R&B charts in 1978.

In 1979, Scott-Heron played at the No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden. The concerts were organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy to protest the use of nuclear energy following the Three Mile Island accident. Scott-Heron's song, "We Almost Lost Detroit" was included in the No Nukes album of concert highlights. It alluded to a previous nuclear power plant accident and was also the title of a book by John G. Fuller. Scott-Heron was also a frequent critic of President Ronald Reagan and his conservative policies.^[18]

Scott-Heron recorded and released only four albums during the 1980s: 1980 and Real Eyes (1980), Reflections (1981) and Moving Target (1982). ). In February 1982, Ron Holloway joined the ensemble to play tenor saxophone. He toured extensively with Scott-Heron and contributed to his next album, Moving Target the same year. His tenor accompaniment is a prominent feature of the songs "Fast Lane" and "Black History/The World." Holloway continued with Scott-Heron until the summer of 1989, when he left to join Dizzy Gillespie. Several years later, Scott-Heron would make cameo appearances on two of Ron Holloway's CD's; Scorcher (1996) and Groove Update (1998), both on the Fantasy/Milestone label.^[19]

Scott-Heron was dropped by Arista Records in 1985 and quit recording, though he continued to tour. The same year he helped compose and sang "Let Me See Your I.D." on the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City, containing the famous line, "The first time I heard there was trouble in the Middle East, I thought they were talking about Pittsburgh." The song compares racial tensions in the US with those in apartheid-era South Africa, implying that the US was not too far ahead in race relations. In 1993, he signed to TVT Records and released Spirits, an album that included the seminal track "'Message to the Messengers". The first track on the album criticized the rap artists of the day. Scott-Heron is known in many circles as "the Godfather of rap"^[20][21] and is widely considered to be one of the genre's founding fathers. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. Message to the Messengers was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic. Regarding hip hop music in the 1990s, he said in an interview:

They need to study music. I played in several bands before I began my career as a poet. There’s a big difference between putting words over some music, and blending those same words into the music. There’s not a lot of humor. They use a lot of slang and colloquialisms, and you don’t really see inside the person. Instead, you just get a lot of posturing.^[22]

—Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron was honored posthumously as a 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the National Academy of Recordings Arts and Sciences.^[23] Charlotte Fox, member of the Washington, DC, NARAS and president of Genesis Poets Music, nominated Scott-Heron for the award. The letter of support came from Grammy award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee Bill Withers.^[24] Scott-Heron's memoir, The Last Holiday, published posthumously by Canongate in the UK and Grove Press in the US, went on sale in January 2012.^[25]

Later years[link]

In 2001, Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years' imprisonment in New York State for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album by Blackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003. On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. Scott-Heron's sentence was to run until July 13, 2009. He was paroled on May 23, 2007.^[27] The reason given for the violation of his plea deal was that the clinic refused to supply Scott-Heron with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist was HIV positive, subsequently confirmed in a 2008 interview.^[28][29][30]

After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at "SOB's" restaurant and nightclub in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

Scott-Heron performing at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, 2009

On October 10, 2007, the day before a scheduled (but ultimately cancelled) second SOB's performance, he was arrested on felony possession of cocaine charges. He continued to make live appearances at various US venues during the course of 2008 and 2009, including further appearances at SOBs in New York. He stated in interviews that work was continuing on his new album, which would consist mainly of new versions of some of his classic songs, plus some cover versions of other artists' work. Canongate Books originally planned to publish The Last Holiday in 2003, before it was put on hold; the book was due to be previewed via a website set to be launched on April 1, 2009, but this did not appear.^{[citation needed]}

Mark T. Watson, a student of Scott-Heron's work, dedicated a collection of poetry to Scott-Heron titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. The book was published in the UK in 2004 by Fore-Word Press Ltd. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Watson's book Black & Blue due for release in 2008 as part of the album Rhythms of the Diaspora by Malik & the OG's on the record label CPR Recordings.^{[citation needed]}

In April 2009 on BBC Radio Four, poet Lemn Sissay presented a half-hour documentary on Gil Scott-Heron entitled Pieces of a Man.^[31] Having interviewed Gil Scott-Heron in New York a month earlier, Pieces of a Man was the first UK announcement from Gil of his forthcoming album and return to form. In November 2009, the BBC's Newsnight interviewed Gil Scott-Heron for a feature titled The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns.^[32] In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, gilscottheron.net, was launched with a brand new track "Where Did The Night Go" made available as a free download from the site.

Scott-Heron released his new album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, I'm New Here is Scott-Heron's first studio album in sixteen years. The pair started recording the album in 2007, with the majority of the record being recorded over the last twelve months with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York. Some have called the record “reverent” and “intimate” due to Scott-Heron’s half-sung, half-talked delivery of his poetry. “I’m New Here” is 28 minutes long with 15 tracks. However, casual asides and observations collected during recording sessions are also included as interludes.^[10] The album attracted substantial critical acclaim with The Guardian newspaper's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the next decade's best records.^[33]

The first single from the album was "Me And The Devil", which was released on February 22, 2010. It was debuted by BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe as his "Hottest Record In The World", along with other specialist DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Benji B. The album's remix, We're New Here, was released in 2011, featuring reworking by English music producer Jamie xx of material from the original album.^[34] It was also very well received by music critics.^[35]

In 2010 he was due to play a gig in Tel Aviv, but this attracted criticism from Palestinian groups who stated "Your performance in Israel would be the equivalent to having performed in Sun City during South Africa’s apartheid era... We hope that you will not play apartheid Israel." In response, he cancelled the gig.^[36]

Death[link]

Scott-Heron died on the afternoon of May 27, 2011, at St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, after becoming ill upon returning from a European trip.^[1][37] Scott-Heron had confirmed previous press speculation about his health, when he disclosed in a 2008 New York Magazine interview, that he had been HIV-positive for several years, and that he had been previously hospitalized for pneumonia.^[30] The cause of Scott-Heron's death has yet to be announced.

He is survived by his son Rumal Rackley from his relationship with Lurma Rackley,^[38] daughter Gia Scott-Heron from his marriage to Brenda Sykes;^[37] and daughters Raquiyah Kelly Heron^[39] and Chegianna Newton.^[38][40] He is also survived by his sister, Gayle and a brother, Denis Heron, who once managed Scott-Heron;^[41] an uncle, Roy Heron;^[42] and by nephew Terrance Kelly, an actor and rapper who performs as Mr. Cheeks and who was a member of the Lost Boyz.^[39]

In response, Public Enemy's Chuck D stated "RIP GSH...and we do what we do and how we do because of you." on his Twitter account.^[43] His UK publisher, Jamie Byng, called him "one of the most inspiring people I've ever met".^[37] On hearing of the death, R&B singer Usher stated "I just learned of the loss of a very important poet...R.I.P., Gil Scott-Heron. The revolution will be live!!".^[44] Richard Russel, who produced Scott-Heron's final studio album, called him a "father figure of sorts to me".^[45] Eminem stated that "He influenced all of hip-hop".^[46] Lupe Fiasco wrote a poem about him and posted it on his website.^[47] Scott-Heron's memorial service was held at Riverside Church in New York City on June 2, 2011, where in tribute to Scott-Heron, Kanye West performed "Lost in the World"^[48] and "Who Will Survive in America",^[49] songs from his last album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.^[48] "Who Will Survive in America" was co-written by Scott-Heron.^[50]

Influence[link]

Scott-Heron's work has influenced writers, academics and musicians from indie rockers to rappers.^[51] His work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as "the godfather of rap" and "the black Bob Dylan".^[52] Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot comments on Scott-Heron's collaborative work with Jackson, "Together they crafted jazz-influenced soul and funk that brought new depth and political consciousness to ‘70s music alongside Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. In classic albums such as 'Winter in America' and 'From South Africa to South Carolina,' Scott-Heron took the news of the day and transformed it into social commentary, wicked satire, and proto-rap anthems. He updated his dispatches from the front lines of the inner city on tour, improvising lyrics with an improvisational daring that matched the jazz-soul swirl of the music".^[2] Of Scott-Heron's influence on hip hop, Kot writes that he "presag[ed] hip-hop and infus[ed] soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary".^[2] Ben Sisario of The New York Times writes that "He preferred to call himself a "bluesologist," drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics".^[4] Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger writes that "The arrangements on Gil Scott-Heron's early recordings were consistent with the conventions of jazz poetry – the movement that sought to bring the spontaneity of live performance to the reading of verse".^[53] On his influence, a music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists".^[9] The Washington Post wrote that "Scott-Heron's work presaged not only conscious rap and poetry slams, but also acid jazz, particularly during his rewarding collaboration with composer-keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson in the mid- and late '70s."^[54] The Observer's Sean O'Hagan discussed the significance of Scott-Heron's music with Brian Jackson, stating:

Together throughout the 1970s, Scott-Heron and Jackson made music that reflected the turbulence, uncertainty and increasing pessimism of the times, merging the soul and jazz traditions and drawing on an oral poetry tradition that reached back to the blues and forward to hip-hop. The music sounded by turns angry, defiant and regretful while Scott-Heron's lyrics possessed a satirical edge that set them apart from the militant soul of contemporaries such as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.^[52]

—Sean O'Hagan

Will Layman of PopMatters writes of the significance of Scott-Heron's early musical work, "In the early 1970s, Gil Scott-Heron popped onto the scene as a soul poet with jazz leanings; not just another Bill Withers, but a political voice with a poet’s skill. His spoken-voice work had punch and topicality. 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' and 'Johannesburg' were calls to action: Stokely Carmichael if he’d had the groove of Ray Charles. 'The Bottle' was a poignant story of the streets: Richard Wright as sung by a husky-voiced Marvin Gaye. To paraphrase Chuck D, Gil Scott-Heron’s music was a kind of CNN for black neighborhoods, prefiguring hip-hop by several years. It grew from the Last Poets, but it also had the funky swing of Horace Silver or Herbie Hancock—or Otis Redding. Pieces of a Man and Winter in America (collaborations with Brian Jackson) were classics beyond category".^[55] Scott-Heron's influence over hip hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron's indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Brian Jackson's compositions, which have been sampled by various hip hop artists. "We Almost Lost Detroit" has been sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba ("Keep On"), Native Tongues duo Black Star ("Brown Skin Lady"), and underground notable MF DOOM ("Camphor").^[56] Scott-Heron's 1980 song "A Legend in His Own Mind" was sampled on Mos Def's "Mr. Nigga".^[57] The opening lyrics from his 1978 recording "Angel Dust" were appropriated by rapper RBX on the 1996 song "Blunt Time" by Dr. Dre.^[58] CeCe Peniston's 2000 song "My Boo" samples Scott-Heron's 1974 recording "The Bottle".^[59]

Among the most notable is rapper/producer Kanye West, who has sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson's "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" for his song "My Way Home" and the single "The People," respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts between West and Common.^[60] Scott-Heron, in turn, has acknowledged West's contributions, sampling the latter's 2007 single "Flashing Lights" on his latest album, 2010's I'm New Here.^[61] Scott-Heron admitted ambivalence about his association with rap, remarking in 2010 in an interview for the Daily Swarm, "I don't know if I can take the blame for it", referring to rap music. He preferred the moniker of "bluesologist". Referring to reviews of his last album and references to him as the "godfather of rap", he said, "It’s something that’s aimed at the kids." He added, "I have kids, so I listen to it. But I would not say it’s aimed at me. I listen to the jazz station.”^[4]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Live albums[link]

Compilations[link]

Collaboration albums[link]

Bibliography[link]

Filmography[link]

• Black Wax (1982). Directed by Robert Mugge.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2005). Directed by Don Letts for BBC, UK.
• Word Up (2005). Directed by Malik Al Nasir for Fore-Word Press, UK.
• The Paris Concert (2007).

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gil Scott-Heron

• Official Web Site
• Family Web Site
• Gil Scott-Heron at Discogs
• Rare interviews from the early 1980s and classic recordings Public radio station KCRW-FM. Tributes from Tom Schnabel and other KCRW DJs
• Gil Scott-Heron at WhoSampled
• BBC biography of Gil Scott-Heron
• Text and Audio of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
• Interview with Gil Scott-Heron in Brooklyn Rail from November 2007
• Interview with Gil Scott-Heron at NPR, from December 11, 2007
• Video interview Vimeo. Gil Scott-Heron interview with Brian Pace, part 1 of 2 with link to part 2. (February 17, 2009)
• Review of Gil Scott-Heron's album I'm New Here at musicomh.com
• A Surprising Record From Gil Scott Heron – audio report by NPR
• exclusive whole-album stream of Gil Scott-Heron's album I'm New Here – from the UK's The Guardian newspaper online
• findagrave memorial