NEW YORK—The author of the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” which helped pioneer sounds that would fuse to become rap has died in New York City. Musician Gil Scott-Heron was 62.
A friend who answered the telephone listed for his Manhattan recording company confirms he died Friday afternoon at a hospital. Doris C. Nolan says he died after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip.
Scott-Heron recorded “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” in the 1970s in Harlem.
He mixed minimalistic percussion and spoken-word performances tinged with politics in a style he sometimes referred to as bluesology. He recorded more than a dozen albums and wrote a handful of books.
Scott-Heron was born in Chicago on April 1, 1949. He was raised in Jackson, Tennessee.