He enrolled at DeWitt Clinton High School but later transferred to The Fieldston School, after impressing the head of the English department with some of his writings and earning a full scholarship. When Scott-Heron was 12 years old, his grandmother died and he returned to live with his mother in The Bronx in New York City. Gil's parents separated in his early childhood and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother, Lillie Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee. His father, Gil Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow", was a Jamaican footballer who in the 1950s became the first black man to play for Celtic F.C. His mother, Bobbie Scott, born in Mississippi, was an opera singer who performed with the Oratorio Society of New York. In 2021, Scott-Heron was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a recipient of the Early Influence Award. He also is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) that officially opened on September 24, 2016, on the National Mall, and in an NMAAHC publication, Dream a World Anew. Scott-Heron received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, The Last Holiday, was published posthumously in January 2012. Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here. AllMusic's John Bush called him "one of the most important progenitors of rap music", stating that "his aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry inspired a legion of intelligent rappers while his engaging songwriting skills placed him square in the R&B charts later in his career." His recording work received much critical acclaim, especially for "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Scott-Heron's music, most notably on the albums Pieces of a Man and Winter in America during the early 1970s, influenced and foreshadowed later African-American music genres, including hip hop and neo soul. His poem " The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music. He referred to himself as a "bluesologist", his own term for "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson fused jazz, blues, and soul with lyrics relative to social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles. Gilbert Scott-Heron (Ap– May 27, 2011) was an American jazz poet, singer, musician, and author known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s.
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