The American Way
Hip Hop founder gets prison time
NEW YORK, July 6 (UPI) — 1970s black consciousness activist, Gil Scott-Heron, was sentenced to two to four years in Queens Supreme Court for violating a plea deal on a drug charge.
Heron violated the deal by leaving the drug treatment center he was placed in, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The 56-year-old musician, poet and singer, regarded as a founding father of Hip Hop, stirred the political pot with his 1970s hit songs “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “Johannesburg,” about apartheid in South Africa, and “The Bottle.”
Heron said the in-patient rehab clinic stopped giving him his HIV medication and since Heron is HIV positive, he left. The prosecution noted Heron once left treatment for an appearance with singer Alicia Keys.
thanks to David Meltzer
