Production Breakdown: Gil Scott-Heron’s Sample Legacy

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Gil Scott-Heron was neither a rapper nor a producer—at times, he was one of hip-hop's most incisive critics, calling artists out for what he viewed as a lack of musicality and intellectual integrity. Nonetheless, the spoken-word poet, lyricist and singer had a profound influence on the development of hip-hop's ethos and aesthetic.

In honor of the reluctant hip-hop forefather, who passed away May 27, after a prolonged battle with illness and addiction, I've assembled a woefully incomplete, but representative selection from the countless records to sample his timeless words and music.

Even those who don't know they know Scott-Heron will likely recognize one cut from his sizable oeuvre—or at least its title. Off his 1970 spoken-word debut, Small Talk at 125th and Lennox, “The Revolution Will Not Be televised” found G.S.H. satirizing conbsumer culture over a backdrop of beatnik-esque bongos.



In 1971, Scott-Heron joined forces with multi-instrumentalist Brian Jackson to record Pieces of a Man, his critically-acclaimed debut as a musical artist. The LP's leading cut was a reworked version of “Revolution,” more polished than the original and featuring a smooth new musical backdrop.



Inspired by the poem's political charge as well as its head-noddable beat, a number of old-school notables used this version's instrumental as backdrop for some revolutionary rhetoric of their own—among them ever-controversial Public Enemy alum Professor Griff (“Real African People 'Rap' Pt. II” off Pawns in the Game)



and Big Apple mainstay Masta Ace (on the title track off 1990's Take a Look Around LP)



The bassline made its way across the Atlantic in 2000, becoming the backbone of French crew Peuple de L'Herbe's “P.H. Theme” (Triple Zéro)



And on “The Sixth Sense,” a record off “Common (Sense)'s 2000 set, Like Water for Chocolate, the conscious-rap pioneer kicked off proceedings with Scott-Heron's trademark line.

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While Pieces of a Man was Scott-Heron's most acclaimed release, subsequent sets got their share of sample attention as well.

Philly vet Freeway's “This Can't Be Real,” off '07's Free at Last found producers Ron Fair and Carvin & Ivan flipping “Did You Hear What They Said?”, a mournful cut off 1972's Free Will




Way back in 1989, the KRS-One-fronted Boogie Down Productions incorporated vocal samples from “H20 Gate Blues,” off Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson's 1974 Winter in America LP, into the politically-charged “Why Is That.” (Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop )



Gil Scott-Heron's further meditations on the blues, specifically a section around 1:40 in “Bicentennial Blues” (off 76's It's Your World), found their way into the intro of Warren G's “Do You See,” a joint featured on the West Coast mainstay's '94 full-length Regulate... G-Funk Era.



“The People,” a Kanye West-produced joint off Common's Finding Forver prominently featured a synth riff from Gil Scott-Heron's 1977 joint “We Almost Lost Detroit” (Bridges).



Oh and, speaking of Kanye, he's only the highest-profile Scott-Heron fan in modern rap. Though the abridged (yet extensive) of “Comment No. 1” featured in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's closing suite (“Lost in the Woods,” “Who Will Survive in America”) was the most extravagant expression of West's admiration for Scott-Heron,



West's first use of a Scott-Heron sample came way back in '05, when he flipped Pieces of a Man inclusion Home Is Where the Hatred Is on Common-assisted Late Registration cut “My Way Home.”



Ambivalence to hip-hop or no, Scott-Heron must have appreciated West's attention, since he returned the favor in 2010, borrowing a snippet of the instrumental from Graduation inclusion “Flashing Lights” (itself sampled from Curtis Mayfield's “Little Child Runnin' Wild”) to back “On Coming From a Broken Home,” a two-part song off his final LP, I'm New Here



And there you have it—a small sampling (no pun intended) of the late Gil Scott-Heron's considerable influence on the hip-hop game. As usual, I left plenty of primo material out, so I'm counting on readers to point out any favorites I've omitted. Peace out and, of course, R.I.P. G.S.H.