Sunday, May 29, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron, poet, rhymer, and inspired protest singer, dead at 62 | NJ.com

Gil Scott-Heron, poet, rhymer, and inspired protest singer, dead at 62 | NJ.com: "'The ghetto was a haven/ for the meanest creature ever known,' Gil Scott-Heron reported on 'Your Soul and Mine,' a song from his 2007 comeback album. For four decades, Heron stared that creature down. He stalked it through the alleyways and mean streets of Chicago, Jackson, Tennessee, and the Bronx, and filed unflinching dispatches as he did. He heard rumblings of insurrection and cries of discontent; he confronted poverty, addiction, government neglect and sheer, unmotivated cruelty. Then, with his poise, his outrage, and his sense of humor intact, he spun all he had seen into poetry and song."