Poet, musician and author Gil Scott-Heron, perhaps best known for his 1970 poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” died last Friday, and hip-hop’s brightest have been mourning his passing all week. Lupe Fiasco wrote a tribute to Scott-Heron and posted it on his website. The piece mimics the structure of Scott-Heron’s famous poem, repeating the tweewed refrain “The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized.”
Verses include: “The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized. Idiot boxes of the world unite! To fight off the effects of intelligence, replace smart quotes with fart jokes, substitute sense with scenes from Martin, let the baby's bathe in that glow and learn all manner of things they don't really need to know! The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized. Channel the content of some rambling nonsense deep into the annals of yo' subconscious, deprogram and depress chasing some televised success, be them, that, they and those be everything but in control, The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized.”
Fiasco signed it “By Wasalu ‘Lupe Fiasco’ Jaco in Dedication to that guiding light of a human being Gil-Scott Heron.” Read the full piece here.

(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)