NYNS - Up to Lenox, 1-2-5

In 1970, Gil Scott-Heron made his debut on the Flying Dutchman label with Small Talk At 125th and Lenox. Very much in the vein of contemporaries like the Last Poets or the Watts Prophets, his early (mostly) spoken word songs were incendiary reports on racism, injustice, and what it can be like looking up from the bottom. The best known track from this album, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, was just one of several amazing songs on an impressive debut.

Although he spent the first 12 or 13 years of his life in Chicago and Tennessee, he had the voice of a true New Yorker. In the title cut, Small Talk At 125th and Lenox, Scott-Heron shows he was also capable of painting a vivid picture of everyday life in the ghetto. He'll tell you himself...