Kanye West Performs At Gil Scott-Heron's Funeral

Kanye West performed in tribute to Gil Scott-Heron at his funeral yesterday (02.06.11).

The rapper appeared at the memorial service at Harem's Riverside Church to give a rendition of 'Lost in the World', which includes a sample of Gil's recorded poem 'Comment #1'.

Gil - often hailed as the 'Godfather of Rap' for his politically charged spoken word pieces - died last Friday (27.05.11) after contracting an illness during a recent trip to Europe.

At the service Gil's 31-year-old daughter, Gia, performed some of her own poetry to "honour and celebrate" her father.

She said in her poem: "But because he was before his time, and because time is unfair, we weren't even aware that his time was up.

"But time can never diminish the bonds of unconditional love. So though your demise is publicised, this new revolution will be televised."

Gil's first wife, Brenda Sykes - who spoke about his long-standing friendship with Stevie Wonder at the service - and book publisher Jamie Byng were amongst 300 friends and family members at the funeral.

Jamie added to Nydailynews.com: "Gil would have really loved it. I thought it was a beautiful service.

"It was a celebration and also a tribute. We all wanted to hear his voice."

Gil Scott-Heron, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' Singer, Dead at 62

Gil Scott-Heron, the musician, poet, author and hip-hop pioneer who wrote 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' has died in New York at age 62. The sad news was revealed on Twitter by his UK publisher, and the cause of death is currently unknown.

One of America's greatest cultural figures of the 1970s and an inspiration to generations since, Scott-Heron had been in fragile health for many years as a result of a decades-long battle with cocaine and HIV infection.

Scott-Heron was renowned for his vivid combination of music and poetry, defining new ways of incorporating spoken-word artistry within ambitious sonic settings right up until his death. He was a key figure in post-civil rights articulation of Black America and his early works were a clear forerunner to hip-hop. Scott-Heron looms as large in the music of contemporary stars such as Kanye West (who largely based "Who Will Survive In America?" on 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' on Scott-Heron's sampled voice and music) as he was on Public Enemy's Chuck D more than 20 years ago.

Scott-Heron's music and words are arguably in greater circulation than ever before. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" -- definitively recorded in 1971, and notoriously used by Nike in 2007 -- is his best known song, elevated to catchphrase status despite being an all-encompassing attack on both societal complacency and false revolutionaries. He is also well known for 1974's "The Bottle," one of his biggest chart successes, which dealt with the evils of alcoholism while scoring big in discos at the time.