Gil Scott-Heron, one of the forefathers of spoken word, died Friday afternoon in New York at age 62. His publisher, Jamie Byng, tweeted news of the passing earlier. After battling a lifetime of ups and downs, Heron released I’m New Here last year, his first album in over 15 years. Read the rest of this entry »

The much lauded and highly anticipated release from poet Gil Scott-Heron and remix phenom Jamie xx, We’re New Here, is now available for everyone’s listening pleasure courtesy of SPIN. Fifteen tracks from the original, redone with rumbling bass, pop & R&B samples and pretty much everything, including the kitchen sink. Read the rest of this entry »

Give London lad Jamie xx a hand. The twenty-something Englishman has been dropping catchy breadcrumbs on both sides of the pond all leading up to his remixed, Gil Scott-Heron project, We’re New Here. His latest musical morsel, “I’ll Take Care Of U,” from the aforementioned album, sees bass kick and drums clap as Jamie interlopes Scott-Heron’s haunting vocals to perfectly accent the thumping beat. Chiming piano highlights the track’s wistful beginnings before giving way to a glitchy slathering of electronic effects, stoking the anticipatory flames for a February 22 release. Read the rest of this entry »

The best way to interlope Gil Scott-Heron and The xx’s Jamie xx’s careers would be through a Ven Diagram. On the surface, there are no direct similarities: Gil Scott-Heron is the Godfather of modern Hip-Hop while Jamie makes music that should be the soundtrack to a John Hughes film. However, dig deeper and see that both share loves of making soulful minimalistic music–whether it be through Scott-Heron’s spoken-word poetry or The xx’s raspy inter-song dialogues. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Gabriele Stabile

VA$HTIE alluded to how a certain “NY anthem” was good, but it didn’t rightly reflect all of what NY’s current reality is and she was right. While the city isn’t the same as its ’80s and ’90s crime-ridden past, it’s not as syrupy sweet as the ode would have you believe. Recent events show that even a whitewashed Times Square isn’t the idyllic tourist attraction it once was since its cleansing.

For a song showcasing the other side, Nasty Nas teams up with everyone’s favorite griot Gil Scott-Heron for the 1200 Squad’s remix of “New York Is Killing Me.” As Nas more accurately states, “it’s foul moods on the average” in the Big Apple, just like in any other city where the inhabitants are straining themselves to make ends meet and watching the city’s negative indicators (crime, depression and unemployment rates) climb. “New York…” is a winding, poetic potent reminder that it’s always best to clutch your purse and keep your wallet in your from pocket when roaming the sidewalks and streets of any city, especially NY. Read the rest of this entry »

Talk about giving your great-uncle a reason to check out the blogs. Clean [enough] to cut a new album, Gil Scott-Heron emerges from out his personal netherworld to share his ingenuity with the world, including an entirely new generation of music listeners probably not accustomed to any sort of thought-provoking spoken word. Read the rest of this entry »

When you hear people speak of Gil Scott-Heron’s Pieces Of A Man, they often relish over the more politically charged “The Revolution…” and “Home Is Where The Hatred Is.” But Read the rest of this entry »

Ride Out and Terry Cole lend their take on Gil Scott Heron’s classic about the Detroit Riots. After Mitch Albom spoke on the unsettled souls, its serves as further detail to dismay. Not all props go to Ride & TC though, as fellow Detroit emcees Marquis Porter and Natas both had their versions out previously. Read the rest of this entry »