NO matter how wrong you gone you can always turn around.
The powerfully simplistic words of Gil Scott-Heron are somewhat prophetic for the original hip-hop rap artist, who's back with a bang on a 28-minute burst of black Bob Dylan genius.
Stripped down and his soul laid bare, Scott-Heron's weather barit
one speaks his way into your mind as his blues-edged philosophies cut through the PR crap to tell it like it is.
His insightful comments are as thought-provoking today from the lips of this hugely underrated 60-year-old enigma as they were from his 23-year-od self when he single-handedly dismantled the entire 70s culture with his poetically poignant The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
Raw-throated musings aren't thrust into your face, but rather left there to linger, question and challenge.
Long after bringing the 90s British rave scene into global fame with The Prodigy, XL head Richard Russell has become arguably the most groundbreaking independent force in the music industry, releasing records by everyone from The White Stripes to MIA and Devendra Banhart, Vampire Weekend, Dizzee Rascal and Radiohead. Connect those dots and you get a good sense of why Russell first made contact with Gil Scott-Heron in Rikers Islands Prison Facility in June 2006 with the proposal of making a new album together. It was a musical marriage made in heaven.
For a man sampled to death by the new wave of bling-adorned wannabes, Gil Scot-Heron is given the chance to air his own thoughts with stunning success. A great album from one of the greatest musical minds around.
Release Date: February 8
