&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gil Scott-Heron, HIV: The Godfather of Rap Who Lived and Died With HIV&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Revolution Will Not Be Televised&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 1970, a 21-year-old poet and musician from Chicago recorded a three-minute piece of spoken-word poetry over congas and bongo drums at a Harlem nightclub called Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The piece was called &lt;strong&gt;&quot;The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was banned by some radio stations. It was embraced by a generation. It became one of the most quoted and sampled pieces of music in American popular culture &amp;mdash; a work that, more than fifty years after its recording, continues to be cited by rappers, activists, journalists, and others as a foundational text of Black American political expression.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The man who recorded it was Gil Scott-Heron &amp;mdash; jazz poet, bluesologist, novelist, musician, and the reluctant Godfather of Rap. He was also, for the final years of his life, a man living openly with HIV.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He died on 27 May 2011, at St Luke&#39;s Hospital in New York City, at the age of 62. He had returned from a trip to Europe and became sick shortly afterwards. The specific cause of his death was not officially reported. But in 2008 &amp;mdash; three years before his death &amp;mdash; he had told &lt;em&gt;New York&lt;/em&gt; magazine that he had been living with HIV for years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He was inducted into the &lt;a href=&quot;https://rockhall.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rock &amp;amp; Roll Hall of Fame&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in 2021, posthumously, under the Early Influence Award category. He received a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Lifetime_Achievement_Award&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in 2012, the year after his death. His children attended the ceremony to receive the award on his behalf.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Born in Chicago, Raised in Tennessee&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gilbert Scott-Heron was born on 1 April 1949 in Chicago, Illinois &amp;mdash; the son of Gil Heron, a Jamaican professional footballer who became the first Black player to sign for &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.celticfc.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Celtic FC&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in Scotland, and Bobbie Scott, an opera singer and librarian.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2036%20%E2%80%93%20Gil%20Scott-Heron%20The%20Godfather%20of%20Rap%20Who%20Lived%20With%20HIV%20%E2%80%94%20and%20Never%20Stopped%20Speaking%20Truth%20to%20Power%20Goodbye%20HIV%2019.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 36 &amp;ndash; Gil Scott-Heron The Godfather of Rap Who Lived With HIV &amp;mdash; and Never Stopped Speaking Truth to Power Goodbye HIV 19.jpg (78 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.roundhillmusic.com/roster/gil-scott-heron&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Round Hill Music / Ace Records&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His parents separated when he was young. He was raised primarily by his grandmother, Lily Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee &amp;mdash; a deeply segregated Southern city in the 1950s, where the realities of racial inequality were part of everyday life. His grandmother died when he was thirteen, and he moved to New York to live with his mother in the Bronx.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From early adolescence, he was a serious reader. He discovered the work of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Langston Hughes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;mdash; the Harlem Renaissance poet whose spare, musical language gave voice to the Black American experience &amp;mdash; and found in it a model for what he wanted to do with words.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He attended &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lincoln University&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in Pennsylvania &amp;mdash; the historically Black university that had educated Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall &amp;mdash; before moving on to a graduate programme at &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.jhu.edu/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Johns Hopkins University&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By then, he was already writing. His first novel, &lt;em&gt;The Vulture&lt;/em&gt;, was published in 1970 &amp;mdash; the same year as his debut album. &lt;em&gt;He published a second novel, The Nigger Factory, in 1971.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He was 21 years old and had already established himself as both a writer and recording artist.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Revolution&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gil Scott-Heron&#39;s debut album, &lt;em&gt;Small Talk at 125th and Lenox&lt;/em&gt;, was recorded live at a Harlem nightclub in 1970. It contained &quot;The Revolution Will Not Be Televised&quot;: a biting, satirical critique of American consumer culture and its relationship to racial inequality.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2036%20%E2%80%93%20Gil%20Scott-Heron%20The%20Godfather%20of%20Rap%20Who%20Lived%20With%20HIV%20%E2%80%94%20and%20Never%20Stopped%20Speaking%20Truth%20to%20Power%20Goodbye%20HIV%2002.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 36 &amp;ndash; Gil Scott-Heron The Godfather of Rap Who Lived With HIV &amp;mdash; and Never Stopped Speaking Truth to Power Goodbye HIV 02.jpg (78 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised.html&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Ochs Archives&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was performed over congas and bongos, with Scott-Heron&#39;s distinctive voice delivering rapid-fire imagery with the precision of a poet and the timing of a comedian.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/vwSRqaZGsPw&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; height=&quot;314&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;allowfullscreen&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Listen to the official audio of &#39;Revolution Will Not Be Televised&#39; by Gil Scott-Heron. As the lyrics declare, &#39;The revolution will be no rerun, brothers; The revolution will be live&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The song was, and remains, a landmark. It anticipated hip-hop by more than a decade. Its influence on the development of rap &amp;mdash; through its spoken delivery, political content, and rhythmic relationship to percussion &amp;mdash; is widely documented.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;AllMusic&#39;s John Bush described Scott-Heron as &quot;one of the most important progenitors of rap music.&quot; Scott-Heron himself rejected the Godfather of Rap title, preferring to describe his music as &quot;bluesology&quot; or &quot;black American music.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Through the 1970s, he built a substantial body of work in American music. &lt;em&gt;Pieces of a Man&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Winter in America&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Johannesburg&lt;/em&gt; &amp;mdash; which addressed apartheid-era South Africa. &lt;em&gt;The Bottle&lt;/em&gt; &amp;mdash; a meditation on alcoholism. &lt;em&gt;Whitey on the Moon&lt;/em&gt; &amp;mdash; a satirical examination of American priorities that contrasted the achievements of the Apollo programme with poverty in Black communities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He referred to himself as a bluesologist &amp;mdash; someone who drew from blues, jazz, and Harlem Renaissance poetry. His music combined blues, jazz, soul, and funk, while his spoken-word performances placed social and political commentary at the centre of his work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Struggle With Addiction&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the mid-1980s, Gil Scott-Heron began to struggle with substance use, including cocaine and crack cocaine. The struggle would affect much of the later part of his life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2036%20%E2%80%93%20Gil%20Scott-Heron%20The%20Godfather%20of%20Rap%20Who%20Lived%20With%20HIV%20%E2%80%94%20and%20Never%20Stopped%20Speaking%20Truth%20to%20Power%20Goodbye%20HIV%2007.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 36 &amp;ndash; Gil Scott-Heron The Godfather of Rap Who Lived With HIV &amp;mdash; and Never Stopped Speaking Truth to Power Goodbye HIV 07.jpg (129 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gil-scott-heron&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Poetry Foundation&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He continued to perform and record sporadically, but his substance use was accompanied by periods of legal trouble and imprisonment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2001, he was jailed on drug-related charges. In 2007, he was jailed again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/09/new-york-is-killing-me&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Yorker&lt;/em&gt; profile&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; published shortly before his death, Scott-Heron spoke candidly about his drug use and the physical pain he had experienced.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By this stage, he was also living with HIV. He had told &lt;a href=&quot;https://nymag.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;New York&lt;/em&gt; magazine&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in 2008 that he had been HIV-positive for years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His disclosure was part of a wider story about a man who had spent decades speaking openly about race, poverty, addiction, politics, and American society. He continued to work and create despite the difficulties that marked the later years of his life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&#39;m New Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2010 &amp;mdash; a year before his death &amp;mdash; Gil Scott-Heron released &lt;em&gt;I&#39;m New Here&lt;/em&gt;, his first album of new material in sixteen years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The album was produced by Richard Russell of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.xlrecordings.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;XL Recordings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. Its sparse production placed Scott-Heron&#39;s voice at the centre, creating a stark and intimate sound that reflected the themes of the album.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At 61, living with HIV and continuing to face challenges related to addiction, Scott-Heron delivered performances of striking emotional depth. The album demonstrated that his creative voice remained powerful decades after his first recordings.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The title track, &quot;I&#39;m New Here&quot;, explored themes of change, uncertainty, and starting again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jamie xx later created &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27re_New_Here&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;We&#39;re New Here&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, a remix album built from Scott-Heron&#39;s recordings. Released in 2011, it introduced his work to another generation of listeners and demonstrated the continuing influence of his voice and songwriting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A posthumous memoir, &lt;em&gt;The Last Holiday&lt;/em&gt;, was published in January 2012. The book was assembled from material Scott-Heron had been working on for years and reflected his lifelong commitment to writing, music, politics, and social observation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2036%20%E2%80%93%20Gil%20Scott-Heron%20The%20Godfather%20of%20Rap%20Who%20Lived%20With%20HIV%20%E2%80%94%20and%20Never%20Stopped%20Speaking%20Truth%20to%20Power%20Goodbye%20HIV%2021.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 36 &amp;ndash; Gil Scott-Heron The Godfather of Rap Who Lived With HIV &amp;mdash; and Never Stopped Speaking Truth to Power Goodbye HIV 21.jpg (143 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/music/gil-scott-heron-voice-of-black-culture-dies-at-62.html&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The New York Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What He Left Behind&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When news of Gil Scott-Heron&#39;s death spread on 27 May 2011, tributes came from musicians, writers, and artists who had been influenced by his work.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Chuck D of Public Enemy, Eminem, Usher, Lupe Fiasco, and others acknowledged his influence. His work had reached beyond jazz, soul, and spoken word, helping shape the language and political consciousness of generations of hip-hop artists.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He had recorded numerous albums and published two novels, a book of poetry, and his posthumous memoir. His influence could be heard in the work of artists who followed him, particularly those who used music and spoken word to address race, poverty, politics, and social inequality.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He was inducted into the Rock &amp;amp; Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 &amp;mdash; ten years after his death &amp;mdash; under the Early Influence Award.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But perhaps the most enduring part of his legacy is the voice itself.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The revolution, he told the world in 1970, would not be televised.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More than fifty years later, his words remain part of American cultural history. His work continues to be heard, sampled, studied, and discussed by artists and audiences who came after him.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And in 2008, when Gil Scott-Heron publicly acknowledged that he was living with HIV, that disclosure became another part of his story &amp;mdash; not the whole of it, but one more truth spoken by an artist who had spent his life refusing to look away from difficult subjects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He died three years later, but the voice remained.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The poet. The musician. The novelist. The bluesologist.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gil Scott-Heron never stopped speaking truth to power.&lt;/p&gt;

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