The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

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"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a funk and spoken word protest song by American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron. It was first released as a track on his debut live album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970). In 1971, a version with added jazz-funk instrumentation was included on his debut studio album Pieces of a Man, and released as the B-side of his debut single, opposite "Home Is Where the Hatred Is". Over a sparse instrumental centered on a funk drum beat, Scott-Heron, a Black man, reads a poem emblematic of the concurrent Black power movement against White supremacy in the United States. Labeling the movement a "revolution", he lists what "the revolution will not" be—mainly, supported by television and other mass media. The song became Scott-Heron's most popular work, and it is seen by some critics as an early work of hip-hop. It was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2005, and has been listed by Rolling Stone as one of the "500 Greatest...

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