Picking up the lyrical baton from Last Poets’ ‘When The Revolution Comes’, Gil Scott-Heron’s most celebrated number shovelled more grievances into a three-minute song than anyone had previously managed. Written as he watched a televised baseball game while studying at Lincoln University, he first laid it down on 1970’s live debut Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, accompanied by congas and bongos with a similar feel to the Last Poets. Re-recorded for 1971’s Pieces Of A Man with a band driven by the masterful rhythm section of Ron Carter and Bernard Purdie, it effortlessly married social commentary with song, directing a searchlight on the deteriorating conditions in US inner cities over Hubert Laws’ affecting flute. Scott-Heron’s no-nonsense proto-rap spat out half-digested TV commercials (Coca Cola, Ultra Brite, Xerox), cross-referenced Richard Nixon, Jackie Onassis, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Steve McQueen and contrasted TV trivia with an incisive image of “pigs shooting down brothers on the instant replay”. Issued as the B-side of his brutal account of broken homes and drug addiction, ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’, the influence of this B-side can’t be overstated – its title adopted by political movements from the Arab Spring to Tahrir Square and Black Lives Matter, its sentiments blazing the way for conscious hip-hop, although its author would still bridle against being called ‘the godfather of rap’.