Great Heron

Gil-Scott Heron
Album: I'm New Here
Song: I'm New Here

What more can be said about Gil-Scott Heron that hasn't been said already? The guy has been credited with kick-starting the hip-hop movement with his seminal, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and he's made one good record after another ever since; this, despite horrendous personal setbacks.  He has been in and out of prison over the last decade on possession charges.  Others have been highly critical of the decision to convict him, partly due to the small quantity of illegal substance, and partly due to the fact that he was 61 years old when sentenced.*

In the years following his early forays into hip-hop he has been critical of much modern attempts at the genre, at one point saying


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.


That's about right.  So much hip-hop falls into precisely that trap, which is why guys like MF DOOM, Mos Def and others are so precious: they are musicians who rap as opposed to rappers who (try to) make music.

Anyway.  Back to the good stuff.  His latest album, his first new studio album since the mid 90s, is killer.  The old man has aged pretty damn well.  Love the smoky delivery and the introspective lyrics.  This isn't the record of a revolutionary -- not any more -- but it is the record of a lifetime of experience.  The epitome of cool.



*Brief political aside, for which I apologize in advance.  The US is fucked up.  Locking up a 61 year old guy for having a party?  Jesus.  Well, at least it's comforting to know that Canada's heading down the same road with Rev Harper et al in power. Christ.