Jalylah Burrell

Hello, Babar

Seattle-bred, Brooklyn-based cultural critic Jalylah Burrell riffs on anything and everything.

Back on the Block: Activist and Addict Gil Scott-Heron Speaks

Posted 12/13/2007 at 2:54 PM | Comment?

"I had a gram of cocaine on me on Amsterdam Avenue. Everyone who ain't had a gram of cocaine raise their hand. They could have arrested everybody on the block that night. I'm saying they got me. I ain't gonna argue about it. That was years ago." -Gil Scott-Heron, 2007

Earlier this year WFUV's Claudia Marshall conducted an excellent interview with Gil Scott-Heron just 4 months free from a bid for drug possession upstate. Yesterday, NPR posted the streaming audio to their redesigned music site and I highly recommend it. Scott-Heron answered a few questions and performed a few songs, which he annotated with anecdotes from his Tennessee childhood and apologies for forgetting a chorus or two. I hear rumors that Scott-Heron may be back behind bars but I haven't been able to find any credible sources. I'm hoping he is free and sober. (Update per Joe Schloss, Scott-Heron fan and author of Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop: Scott-Heron was arrested in early October and released in late November. More details here.)

Related links:
+Gil Scott-Heron's Rap: Probable Cause and a Poet's Problems, 2001 (He denies doing this interview in the WFUV interview)

+ Breath of Life on Scott-Heron's "Beginnings", 2006

+Hip Hop founder gets prison time, 2006

+Interview with frequent collaborator Brian Jackson, October 18, 2007

+Show review of Scott-Heron's performance at SOB's in New York, September 13, 2007, House footage below: