Saturday, May 28, 2011

First Post Back: Remembering Gil Scott-Heron


He's backkkkkkkk!  And no, I'm not referring to Gil Scott-Heron (he's dead), I am referring to myself.  I apologize to everyone for my extended absence.  I was going through finals and then drinking the finest French Cognacs across the Orient.

Anyway, today let's all take a moment to remember Gil Scott-Heron.  Remember how rap and hip-hop used to be about conveying a message?  Or telling a story using colorful, poetic wording and strong political undertones?  Me neither.  But, I am told that rap and hip-hop was once like this.  For that, we owe a great deal to Gil Scott-Heron.  He is one of the artists, at least the most well-known, who tried to bring Spoken Word Poetry to music.

Now, we probably all do remember Public Enemy, right?  You at least remember Flava Flav.  Well, they were in large part inspired and influenced by Scott-Heron.  They used his no-holds-barred style to create some of the best rap music ever created (not so much Flava Flav, he was just standing around yelling "Yeaaaa boiiii!").

Look him up, and listen to some of his stuff.  Or, at at least watch this video and skip ahead to 2:26.

23 comments:

  1. Welcome back and rest in peace Gil, a true poet!

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  2. "He's backkkkkkkk! And no, I'm not referring to Gil Scott-Heron (he's dead),"

    Best part of this blog :P. Its funny...not the dead part

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  3. Hey there welcome back - and may Gil rest in peace

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  4. Good stuff, never heard of him before!

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  5. your really great mmm

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  6. This is a decent blog. Consider yourself added to morning coffee, sir.

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  7. Listening now. Really appreciating good music.

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  8. Wow shocked to hear about this...what a great loss for the music community.

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  9. R.I.P I listened to Who will survive in America non-stop when I heard he died.

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  10. i can't say that i'll ever fully be into hip-hop. not saying that i think it sucks. it's just not my thing. i'll check it out though

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  11. Oh wow! Didn't know about the news before right now ...

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  12. Wait wait, so you actually want me to believe that rap and hip hop weren't shit at some point?

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  13. Thought we had a zombie apocolypse imminent there for a second..

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