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, Tenn.
