Scott-Heron made the list twice: At No. 64 for 1970’s ‘Whitey on the Moon’ and at No. 14 for 1971’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

“He was one of one,” said Jamal Ahmad, host of WCLK’s “The Soul of Jazz.” “He was so unique as an artist. You knew you were not going to see anyone like him again. He was a bona fide musician, singer and wordsmith, and he understood the roots of music, be it blues or jazz.”

Scott-Heron, whose genre-crossing discography includes the powerful “The Bottle,” “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “Winter in America,” could range from hard-hitting social commentary to personal songs such as “Your Daddy Loves You,” a heartwarming message to Gia Scott-Heron, his daughter with actress Brenda Sykes.

Ahmad remembers being at a show and watching grown men wipe away tears when the song was performed.

Scott-Heron’s songs reflected real-world issues and hopes. He inspired many in the Civil Rights Movement with his social commentary, satire and musical calls to action, whether it was in songs about Detroit, South Carolina or to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

Scott-Heron “crafted poignant music that articulated the tenor of the futility and hopelessness Black people were experiencing,” said activist Sam Mahone, who was involved in the Southwest Georgia protest movement in his hometown Americus. “At the same time, his music was a soothing balm that uplifted and motivated them to become conscious and to act.”

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Rackley administers his father’s estate full time now.

“He was super smart and super funny,” said Rackley, 47, who is the father of two daughters. “He was the most clever person I ever met. He was a genius. There was not a topic that came up that he wasn’t knowledgeable about.”

Track One: The Bottle

“And don’t you think it’s a crime/ When time after time, people in the bottle.”

In his memoir, “The Last Holiday,” Scott-Heron talked about the lyrics to the song, “The Bottle,” which were inspired by a group of alcoholics who gathered daily outside of a liquor store behinmd the house where in lived in Northern Virginia, outside of Washington D.C.

Scott-Heron went out to talk with them.

“Alcoholism and drug addiction were both illnesses, but people really only saw the condition and not the illness, so that’s why I wrote the lyric from a stark point of reality,” Scott-Heron wrote.

Later in life, Scott-Heron struggled with substance abuse and spent multiple times in prison due to drug charges and parole violations.

Track Two: Winter in America

The truth is there, ain’t nobody fighting/ Because, well, nobody knows what to save/ Brother, save your soul/ Lord knows it’s winter in America

Ahmad was born in 1974, the same year as Scott-Heron’s studio album “Winter in America,” with then-partner Brian Jackson, was released. It debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top Jazz Albums, propelled by “The Bottle.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

To Ahmad, that album solidified Scott-Heron as the “progenitor of what we know as hip-hop before it became what it has become today.”

Scott-Heron, a voracious reader, is often referred to as the godfather of rap, which many who knew him say he wasn’t comfortable with.

Kim Jordan, who worked as the musical director for Scott-Heron for many years, said the musician “didn’t acknowledge that and always looked at himself as a ‘bluesologist.’ In his mind, he wasn’t the godfather of rap. They put that on him, and that’s not how he classified himself. He looked at words and looked at what was going on, and he spoke on it.”

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Credit: Daniel Varnado

In 1970, Scott-Heron published a novel, “The Vulture,” a thriller that he wrote while a student at Lincoln University.

That same year, Scott-Heron’s “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” a spoken word recording from his book of poetry, was released with its album cover heralding him as “A New Black Poet.”

In 1971, “Pieces of a Man,” his debut studio album produced by Bob Thiele, was released to critical acclaim.

The albums tapped into the struggles, frustrations and activism of African Americans as the Civil Rights Movement was continuing to grow.

Track Three: Whitey on the Moon

A rat done bit my sister, Nell/ With whitey on the moon/ Her face and arms began to swell/ And whitey’s on the moon

Decades after it was written in 1970 in response to the first moon landing in 1969, Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon,” trended on social media as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and other billionaires ramped up the space race.

His song was critical of the nation spending billion on space exploration as millions of people live in poverty across the world.

In the lyrics of the song “95 South,” Scott-Heron expressed his hope that people would not give up on the progress toward human rights and peace and keep “climbing.”

Raised up in a small town in the country down South/ So I’ve been close enough to know what oppression’s about

“I think those words are especially important now,” Rackley said.

Track Four: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Scott-Heron’s influence became clear to Rackley while traveling with his dad.

“I realized his impact after I started touring with his band in Europe for two summer tours when I was 19 and 20,” he said. “My fondest memory was at an outdoor concert in France, of thousands of fans singing Gil’s lyrics word for word when 90% of them didn’t speak English. That is when I realized how he touched the world.”

According to Spotify, Scott-Heron has more than 606,000 monthly listeners.

As administrator of Scott-Heron’s estate, Rackley’s had to turn down requests to use his father’s music in films and in other ways that he considers inappropriate for his brand.

However, he has worked with numerous artists who have sampled Scott-Heron’s music; and several films and television shows have included his songs in tracks or promo trailers.

They include films “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” Marvel’s and Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther,” and on television, HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” “Power” and “Scandal.”

He’s also partnered with companies on merchandise. The estate has partnered with Awake NY on a line of clothing.

In 2012, Scott-Heron posthumously received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2014 his “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Credit: Daniel Varnado

In 2021, Scott-Heron was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an early influencer. That same year, an amphitheater in St. Marys Park in the Bronx was renamed in Scott-Heron’s honor.

Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes/ No beginning, there ain’t no ending / Just on and on and on and on and on

It’s all because they’re so afraid to say that they’re alone/ Until our hero rides in, rides in on his saxophone/

Or could you call on Lady Day?/ Could you call on John Coltrane?

Now, ‘cause they’ll, they’ll wash your troubles/ Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away

- Lyrics to “Lady Day and John Coltrane”

Track Five: Your Daddy Loves You

Scott-Heron was born in Chicago. His mother was a librarian and an opera singer. His father, a Jamaican-born soccer player, moved to Scotland and became the first Black player on the famed Celtic Football Club.

Scott-Heron’s parents divorced when he was less than 2 years old, at which time he was moved to Jackson, Tennessee, to live with his maternal grandmother.

Rackley sports a large tattoo of his father’s image on his right forearm.

Credit: Rumal Rackley

Credit: Rumal Rackley

Rackley’s parents met in 1974 in Washington, D.C., where his mother, Lurma Rackley, was a reporter and his father taught creative writing and was building a career in music. They had an on-and-off romance, and Rumal Rackley did not meet his dad until he was about 11.

When Scott-Heron died his estate ended up in New York surrogate court. The relationship with the half siblings, which had been cordial, turned contentious, Lurma Rackley said. At issue was who would administer the estate.

A judge initially appointed Rackley as temporary administrator, which was challenged by some of his half sisters. Eventually he was appointed the permanent administrator.

Today, he and his half siblings have a strained relationship, he said.

“I didn’t need DNA confirmation to know he was my son,” Scott-Heron wrote in his memoir. “He looked exactly like pictures I had seen of myself on the front porch in Jackson at his age.”

“Rumal and Gil have the same kind of timing with humor,” said Rumal’s mother, who lives in Tyrone. “They have the same tendency not to get angry right away, but when they do get angry, they’re through with you. … He and Gil had a spiritual connection. When Gil died it was a major blow to Rumal.”

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Credit: Daniel Varnado

As much as Rackley admired his father’s music, it was the life lessons he picked up that he remembers most today.

In New York one time, a homeless man approached his dad and asked for money. Scott-Heron just reached in his pocket and gave him everything that he had.

“He just gave it to him. He didn’t slow down or anything.”

Then he asked Rumal for money to get a taxi.

When Rumal asked why he gave a stranger all of his money, his father replied that “‘He needed it more than I did. If someone asks you for something, they’re really coming from a place of humbling themselves to even ask you. So if they ask you and you can do it, then you should.'

“I still felt like that was extreme because I had to use my little $20 to get us back to his apartment.”

Track Six: The Last Holiday

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Credit: Daniel Varnado

Scott-Heron’s final studio album, “I’m New Here,” was released in 2010 by British indie label XL Recordings

For Scott-Heron to be on that label at his age “really shows how timeless he was as an artist,” said WALK’s Ahmad. “And how pertinent he is to whole new generation.

In his memoir, “The Last Holiday,” which was published after his death, Scott-Heron writes about when, in 1980, Stevie Wonder invited him to tour together to rally support for a holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Credit: Rumal Rackley

Credit: Rumal Rackley

Despite his accolades and influence, Scott-Heron’s modesty shows.

“I’ve always looked at myself as a piano player from Tennessee. I play some piano and write some songs.”

ABOUT THIS SERIES

This year’s AJC Black History Month series, marking its 10th year, focuses on the role African Americans played in building Atlanta and the overwhelming influence that has had on American culture. These daily offerings appear throughout February in the paper and on ajc.com and ajc.com/news/atlanta-black-history.