Prison terms and more performing
In 2001, Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years imprisonment in a New York State prison for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album by Blackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003, the year BBC TV broadcast the documentary Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised—Scott-Heron was arrested for possession of a crack pipe during the editing of the film in October 2003 and received a six-month prison sentence.
On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. Scott-Heron’s sentence was to run until July 13, 2009. He was paroled on May 23, 2007. The reason given for the violation of his plea deal was that the clinic refused to supply Scott-Heron with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist was HIV positive, subsequently confirmed in a 2008 interview.
I’m New Here
After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at “SOB’s” restaurant and nightclub in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.
Malik Al Nasir a.k.a Mark T. Watson, a student of Scott-Heron’s work, dedicated a collection of poetry to Scott-Heron titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. The book was published in the UK in 2004 by Fore-Word Press Ltd. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Watson’s book entitled Black & Blue in 2006, as part of the album Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol 1. by Malik & the O.G’s for the record label MCPR Music. After Scott-Heron’s death Malik Al Nasir told his story to Simon Hattenstone of the tremendous kindness that Scott-Heron had showed Malik throughout his adult life since meeting the poet back stage at a gig in Liverpool in 1984. The story was then serialized in The Guardian Newspaper in the UK. The BBC World Service also covered the story on their Outlook program with Matthew Bannister which took the story global. It was subsequently covered in many other mediums such as BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, where Jazz Legend Al Jarreau also paid tribute to Gil, and was mentioned the US edition of Rolling Stone and the Huffington Post. Malik & the O.G’s performed a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron at Liverpool International Music Festival in 2013 with jazz composer Orphy Robinson of The Jazz Warriors and Rod Youngs from Gil’s band The Amnesia Express.
In April 2009 on BBC Radio Four, poet Lemn Sissay presented a half-hour documentary on Gil Scott-Heron entitled Pieces of a Man.Having interviewed Gil Scott-Heron in New York a month earlier, Pieces of a Man was the first UK announcement from Gil of his forthcoming album and return to form. In November 2009, the BBC’s Newsnight interviewed Gil Scott-Heron for a feature titled The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns. In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, gilscottheron.net, was launched with a brand new track “Where Did The Night Go” made available as a free download from the site.
In 2010 Scott-Heron was booked to perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, but this attracted criticism from pro-Palestinian activists, who stated: “Your performance in Israel would be the equivalent to having performed in Sun City during South Africa’s apartheid era… We hope that you will not play apartheid Israel.” Scott-Heron responded by canceling the performance.
Me and the Devil
I’m New Here
Scott-Heron released his new album I’m New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, I’m New Here was Scott-Heron’s first studio album in sixteen years. The pair started recording the album in 2007, with the majority of the record being recorded over the twelve months leading up to the release date with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York. I’m New Here is 28 minutes long with 15 tracks; however, casual asides and observations collected during recording sessions are also included as interludes.
The album attracted substantial critical acclaim, with The Guardian newspaper’s Jude Rogers declaring it one of the “best of the next decade,” while some have called the record “reverent” and “intimate,” due to Scott-Heron’s half-sung, half-spoken delivery of his poetry. In a music review for public radio network NPR, Will Hermes stated: “Comeback records always worry me, especially when they’re made by one of my heroes … But I was haunted by this record … He’s made a record not without hope but which doesn’t come with any easy or comforting answers. In that way, the man is clearly still committed to speaking the truth.” Writing for music website Music OMH, Darren Lee provided a more mixed assessment of the album, describing it as rewarding and stunning, but he also states that the album’s brevity prevents it “from being an unassailable masterpiece.”
However, Scott-Heron described himself as a mere participant in an interview with The New Yorker:
This is Richard’s CD. My only knowledge when I got to the studio was how he seemed to have wanted this for a long time. You’re in a position to have somebody do something that they really want to do, and it was not something that would hurt me or damage me—why not? All the dreams you show up in are not your own.