RIP Gil Scott Heron. An artist who spent the seventies railing against the establishment (“Johannesburg”, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”) and addiction (“The Bottle”, “Angel Dust”), who influenced and inspired artists as diverse as Public Enemy and Kanye West, died on Friday night in hospital in New York of complications arising from a disease he caught whilst touring Europe. His fight against “the man” was displaced at some point in the 1980′s by another fight, ironically against addiction, but he left a body of work that continues to inspire. As is so often the case, his death interrupted a rehabilitation of sorts, both artistically with “I’m New Here”, it’s subsequent remix “We’re New Here” and personally. He fought the good fight for the right reasons and if in the end he lost, it does not take away from the fact that he tried.
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