Throwback: Happy 77th birthday, Gil Scott-Heron!

It’s April 2026. We’re at war with Iran. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about birthright citizenship. The global economy is on a slow-burn collapse. Everything is awesome. Oh, and he’s still alive.

But we still have music, friends and community, y’all. And hopefully JOVM offers a bit of respite in our mad, mad, mad world.

So while I do focus on new music, there’s always room to celebrate our legends — both living and departed.

• The Isley Brothers‘ co-founder Rudolph Isley was born on this day 87 years ago today

Gil Scott-Heron was born on this day 77 years ago.

Scott-Heron is sort of a spiritual godfather to hip-hop and neo soul — and cognoscenti (including yours truly) can make a fair argument that acts like Public Enemy, Common, Talib Kweli and Mos Def, a.k.a Yasin Bey are indebted to his work, which threw together spoken word poetry, jazz, the blues, soul and rock in a difficult to pigeonhole mix. 

And although he left us 15 years ago, his work is still an incisive look at race in America and globally that’s still unnervingly relevant.

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The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

To that end, I could use your support to continue to keep bringing you my unique global perspective on music. There are a number of ways that you can support this work. 

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Anything you can give is very much appreciated. It can and does make a real difference, y’all. 

I know that a lot of folks are struggling to make ends meet in an uncertain and tumultuous economic climate. So there are other, non-financial ways in which you can support this work. 

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