The Godfather of Rap, Gil Scott-Heron releases new track, "Me and the Devil", on his album, Early This Morning

Sixty year old Gil Scott-Heron, an American poet, musician, and author, is back with a new album, Early This Morning, after a thirteen year hiatus that was fraught with cocaine addictions and stints in prison. Scott-Heron has been dubbed the "Godfather of Rap" and the "Black Bob Dylan" in his 40 year career. His raw songwriting is flush with satire, pessimism, and social commentary with a turbulent mix of poetry, blues, and rap. However, intellectually, his material is light years beyond his rap contemporaries. Of 90's "hip hop", he has been quoted saying "They use a lot of slang and colloquialisms, and you don’t really see inside the person. Instead, you just get a lot of posturing." I couldn't agree more.

Scott-Heron's latest track, Me and the Devil, is a mesmorizing and gritty version of famed Delta bluesmen Robert Johnson's early 20th century song.

Have a listen below and check out the lyrics. Open up your ears and expand your musical horizons with Gil Scott-Heron.

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Early this morning

when you knocked

upon my door (2x)

An I say

Hello Satan

I believe its time to go

Me and the Devil

Walking side by side (2x)

And I'm gonna see my woman

'til I get satisfied

See See

You don't see why

Like you'a dog me 'round

Now babe you know I ain't do it like that

Say I

Don't see why

people dawging me around

It must be that old old evil spirit

that spirit drop me down in your ground

you may

bury my body

down by the highway side

I don't really care where you bury me when I'm gone

I'm gone

you may bury my body

down by the highway side

So my old evil spirit

can greyhound

bus that ride

--Bonus part

Standing

in the ruins of another black mans life

Or flying through the valley

separating day and night

I am am Death,

Cried the Vulture,

for the people of the light

Caron brought his raft

from the sea that sails on souls

and I saw the scavenger departing

taking warm hearts to the cold

he knew the ghetto was a haven

for the meanest creature ever known

in a wilderness of heart break

in a desert of despair

Evil's clarion of justice

shrieks a cry of naked terror

taking babies from their mamas

leaving grief beyond compare

so if you see the vulture coming

flying circles in your mind

remember their is no escaping

for he will follow close behind

only promise me a battle

a battle

for your soul and mind

and mine

and mine