Review Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man

Review of Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man

For a change in pace, we decided that the 4 Sonic Collective members should select albums from a randomly selected genre for everyones next pick. Hip Hop was chosen and I (Darren) was up first. I decided to use my pick on trying to discover the very beginnings of the hip hop/rap genre. Gil Scott-Heron’s Pieces of a Man was mentioned often as a very powerful influence, namely the song ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, which is a spoken word politically powerful piece that highlights the struggles of the black population in the United States during the late 1960s. We listened, we mostly liked, and we learned a lot about GSH.

We invite you to hear our four differing opinions of this album and learn something with us. In this podcast you will learn the following about Gil Scott-Heron’s Pieces of a Man album and much more:

• The history of where rap/hip hop developed is very interesting and we learned about a Griot from Africa and how the fun rants and taunts from figures like James Brown and Mohammed Ali set the stage for spoken word to musical rhythms.
• Songs from the Bee Gees, The Osmonds, Rod Stewart and others were topping the charts. This album must have sounded like a punch in the face to that crowd of listeners.
• Why did GSH have a beef with many rappers who cited him as an influence, and which mega-star of rap played at his funeral?

Listen to our thoughts and see if this is worth going back to and let us know what your experience was with this album.

The Sonic Collective