The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

VINYL FORMAT. "Gil Scott-Heron is thought to be one of the progenitors of hip-hop, approaching his early efforts with a spoken word 'rap' as backed by an insistent groove, with some counterbalancing jazz flute acting as a foil to his strident vocal delivery. His was the street-level voice of a black man concerned that the larger American culture was leaving his community behind in the wake of cultural distractions. Among these distractions was television and commercialism which took attention away from what was happening in neighborhoods in cities all over America - that the poverty cycle and disillusionment caused by it was reaching a breaking point. Where Marvin Gaye was angered and saddened by this same trend as expressed in his Inner City Blues put out that same year, Scott-Heron is full of disdain and sarcasm, listing off the banalities of white America measured against the anger and rising tension that stood in contrast with it." - The Delete Bin