Gil Scott-Heron, surnommé le Godfather of Rap ou le Black Bob Dylan est mort le 27 mai 2011, à l’âge de 62 ans. Le chanteur avait sorti son dernier album, début 2011, avec notamment le titre Me And The Devil :

Gil Scott-Heron a inspiré les plus grands du rap, dont Eminem, Snoop Dogg et également Kanye West qui l’avait samplé dans Who Will Survive In America :

Us living as we do upside down.
And the new word to have is revolution.
People don’t even want to hear the preacher
spill or spiel because God’s whole card has been thoroughly piqued.
And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey.
The youngsters who were programmed to continue
fucking up woke up one night digging
Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys.
America stripped for bed and we had not all yet closed our eyes.
The signs of Truth were tattooed across our open ended vagina.
We learned to our amazement untold tale of scandal.
Two long centuries buried in the musty vault,
hosed down daily with a gagging perfume.
America was a bastard the illegitimate daughter of the mother country
whose legs were then spread around the world
and a rapist known as freedom, free doom.
Democracy, liberty, and justice were revolutionary code names
that preceded the bubbling bubbling bubbling bubbling bubbling
in the mother country’s crotch
What does Webster say about soul?
All I want is a good home and a wife
and a children and some food to feed them every night.
After all is said and done build a new route to China if they’ll have you.
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?