• Track Listing

Released a year before he died, Gil Scott-Heron’s final album (and first in 16 years) awed listeners as he paired his signature street poetry with surprising covers, hypnotic loops, hip-hop beats and stark reflections on life and death. The recording won universal raves then, as will this release: a limited-edition expanded version on 2 CDs or double vinyl including unreleased tracks (a cover of Richie Havens’ "Handsome Johnny" and the previously unheard Scott-Heron original "King Henry IV") and other recordings from the album sessions that only came out on the rare, vinyl-only deluxe version of the LP. Those join "On Coming from a Broken Home Pts. 1 & 2," "The Crutch," "New York Is Killing Me," his takes on Robert Johnson’s "Me and the Devil," Bobby "Blue" Bland’s "I’ll Take Care of You" and the rest of the remarkable final album by this massively influential American original. XL.