“I was moved in with her, temporarily, just until things were patched,
‘Til this was patched and ‘til that was patched,
Until I became at 3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 and 10,
The patch that held Lily Scott,
Who held me and like them 4,
I became one more.”
These are some of the insights offered by the incomparable Gil Scott-Heron during ‘On Coming From A Broken Home (Part 1)’, the opening salvo from his new album I’m New Here.
It seems like a strange album title for a man so well versed as GSH. How can someone who has seen just about everything, be new to anything? Well the man has spent the worst part of the last ten years incarcerated for various drug charges.
During that period he has been virtually forgotten, aside from a brief appearance alongside Blackalicious and a respect laden shout out from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy on ‘Losing My Edge’.
So it is he sets out to address his woes and misdemeanours with I’m New Here.
“Being blessed is just not being able to float on air, I’m saying if you’ve gotta pay for things you’ve done wrong, I got a big bill coming, at the end of the day,” GSH laughs.
Songs like ‘Me and The Devil’ address his spells in prison and his drug addiction. The music is far from friendly as Scott-Heron attempts to tackle the issues head on, shirking nothing and apologizing for even less in his handling of the problems.
His brutal honesty is what makes him endearing, in the same way it did Johnny Cash. He doesn’t run from the issues that plague him, with ‘Running’ being the most direct example.
His mind is still as razor sharp as it was when he released the unfathomable Small Talk at 125th and Lennox in 1970, even if his voice is not. In fact, it’s this croaky, weathered version of his baritone delivery that really makes you believe what he’s saying.
“Turn around, turn around, turn around, and you may come full circle, and be new here, again” he laments, almost as if he is singing to himself in the mirror. The album is so cathartic. The audience is the proverbial priest and he is attending confession.
Further religious implications are evident on “Your Soul and Mine” as our sage host profess lyrical on the battle for a man’s soul. Again, it all appears to cut close to the bone.
‘New York is Killing Me’ sees GSH confess rather frankly that the city that never sleeps has a constrictor like hold on him, a hold that is detrimental to his health. “Bunch of doctors coming round, and New York was killing me, got to go back home and take it slow in Jackson, Tennessee,” stresses Scott-Heron.
The album closes by coming “full circle” with ‘On Coming From A Broken Home (Part 2)’, again with Kanye West’s ‘Flashing Lights’ – an obvious ode to old chipmunk cheeks’ sampling of GSH in the past – providing the backing track.
I’m New Here is obviously a very personal album, as are all GSH LP’s. This one deviates from the norm though in the sense that it addresses his personal problems, not his problem with the world he lives in but the problem with the world he has created for himself.
It’s a return to form for an artist who has been nothing but sorely missed over the years, not just for his output but also the input he has in other artists’ lives and opinions. Let’s face it, there would not really be Hip-Hop without GSH. The king is not dead, long live the king.
“My life has been guided by women,
But because of them,
I am a man,
God Bless you Momma,
And thank you.”
No comments:
Post a Comment