Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—died May 27, 2011, Manhattan, New York) was a revolutionary American poet and musician who is often recognized as a forefather of hip-hop for his recordings that combined spoken-word vocal delivery with lyrics addressing contemporary social issues. He is best known for his 1971 recording “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” a poem set to music that critiques the stupefying effect of popular culture on political action. Though Scott-Heron considered himself a “bluesologist,” many rappers claimed him as one of their own. In 2010 Chuck D of Public Enemy told The New Yorker, “You can go into [Allen] Ginsberg and the Beat poets and [Bob] Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern word.”

Early life and first novel and album

Born in Chicago to Bobbie Scott-Heron, a teacher and singer, and Gilbert Heron, a Jamaican-born athlete who was one of the first Black men to play professional football (soccer) in the United States, Gil Scott-Heron spent his early years living in Tennessee with his maternal grandmother, Lily Scott, after his parents divorced. Lily was a civil rights activist who raised her grandson on a diet of music—she bought him his first piano—and the work of Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance poet who became one of the foremost Black writers of his day. After Lily’s death in 1961 Bobbie moved back to Tennessee, where she continued to raise Gil. He became one of three Black students to integrate the then all-white local junior high school. The following year Gil and his mother moved to New York City, where he attended high school.

Scott-Heron briefly attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania—the alma mater of Langston Hughes—before dropping out in his second year to write a novel. The Vulture, a mystery about the murder of a teenage boy in Manhattan, was published in 1970. To promote the book, Scott-Heron recorded a live performance of spoken-word poetry with jazz producer Bob Thiele, a collaborator of John Coltrane, Quincy Jones, and Louis Armstrong. This became Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, Scott-Heron’s first album, which was released in 1970 and features an early version of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” On that track and others on the album, Scott-Heron’s only musical accompaniment was a conga and bongo drums.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Pieces of a Man and “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

Pieces of a Man (1971), Scott-Heron’s second album, also included “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” this time in a fuller version, with Brian Jackson on flute and jazz-soul drum grooves and a distinctive bass line. Scott-Heron had begun writing the poem when he was 19 years old. Inspired by the commercial breaks interspersing a televised baseball game, as well as the Last Poets’ similarly radical spoken-word recording “When the Revolution Comes” (1970), “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” evokes popular brands and TV shows to critique consumer culture’s pacifying impact on political activism.

The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox in four parts without commercial interruptions.…
Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville Junction
will no longer be so damned relevant
and women will not care if Dick finally got down with Jane
on Search for Tomorrow
because Black people will be in the street looking for
A Brighter Day.

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” went viral in a world before online streaming. Though its radical lyrics kept it from radio airplay, the song and album spread by word of mouth through Black neighborhoods and on college campuses across the country. It became one of the best-known protest pieces of the 20th century, following in the footsteps of Ginsberg’s “Howl” (1956) and Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965). Its impact was especially felt in the burgeoning hip-hop scene; in the decades after the poem’s recording, dozens of rappers, including Queen Latifah, Common, Pharrell Williams, and Kendrick Lamar, either quoted its lyrics or sampled its music in their songs and performances. Despite its revolutionary bent, the poem—particularly its title—was later co-opted and commercialized. In a choice he later admitted to regretting, Scott-Heron gave permission for the song to be used in a 1994 Nike ad directed by Spike Lee—bringing the revolution, quite literally, to television.

Later releases and books

Scott-Heron continued writing and performing, publishing a second novel in 1972 and releasing more albums, including 1972’s Free Will and 1974’s Winter in America. The latter release, another collaboration with Brian Jackson, contained “The Bottle,” a cautionary tale about alcohol use that blends Jackson’s supple flute riffs with Caribbean rhythms. Its infectious sound led to producer Clive Davis signing Scott-Heron to Arista Records in 1975. Later that year the anti-apartheid song “Johannesburg,” from Scott-Heron and Jackson’s album From South Africa to South Carolina, reached number 29 on the Billboard rhythm-and-blues (R&B) chart. Three years later Scott-Heron and Jackson cracked the top 20 with “Angel Dust,” which peaked at 15.

In 1980 Scott-Heron joined fellow musician Stevie Wonder on a tour campaigning for a national holiday to commemorate civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (Legislation declaring the third Monday in January a federal holiday in King’s honor passed in 1983.) He parted ways with Jackson and took a brief hiatus from recording in the mid-1980s before returning with 1994’s Spirits; its track “Message to the Messengers” offers a warning to hip-hop artists to use their influence responsibly. Notably, Scott-Heron publicly distanced himself from the “forefather of rap” label and once called rap “something that’s aimed at the kids.” He told the Los Angeles Times in 1992, “I have kids, so I listen to it. But I would say it’s not aimed at me. I still listen to the jazz station.”

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

Throughout the 1980s and onward Scott-Heron struggled with drug and alcohol use, which often disrupted his artistic endeavors and personal life. In 1999 his partner, the artist and photographer Monique Delatour, obtained a restraining order against him for assault. Following an arrest for cocaine possession in 2001, Scott-Heron spent much of the next decade in and out of prison on drug-related charges. His final studio album, I’m New Here, in which he addresses his fraught later years, was released in 2010 and received critical acclaim.

Scott-Heron also published So Far, So Good (1990) and Now and Then (2000), collections of his poems and lyrics, as well as a posthumous memoir, The Last Holiday (2012).

Death and legacy

Scott-Heron died in 2011 in Manhattan after falling ill during a European trip. Many rappers and other recording artists reacted to his death with tributes on social media. Eminem, for example, posted on Twitter: “He influenced all of hip-hop.”

In 2005 the U.S. Library of Congress added “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Scott-Heron posthumously received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2012. His signature recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014, and Scott-Heron was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

In the 21st century his trademark poem continued to resonate politically and artistically. In 2025 “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” played a key role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s dark comedy-thriller One Battle After Another, serving as a rallying cry and a secret code for the fictional political resistance group the French 75.