Gil Scott-Heron’s final opus, one that he was working on intermittently for the last two decades of his life, is not an album of music but a memoir. Autobiography isn’t quite the right word, because this book pulls down the shutters and closes shop in 1981, the mid-point in his fascinating life, leaving the artist in suspended animation.

He’s right at the height of his fame, and has just been asked to join Stevie Wonder on his Hotter Than July tour (see YouTube clip below). Bob Marley had initially been billed as the support act, but was hastily hospitalised when the cancer in his toe began spreading to the rest of his body. So Gil, who had originally been booked to play only the first dates of the tour in Texas and Louisiana, was drafted in for the whole 16-week tour.

The tour climaxed with the Rally for Peace on January 15 1981 in Washington D.C. Organised by Stevie Wonder to support the campaign to have Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday recognised as a national holiday, that Rally, and the song accompanying the campaign, ‘Happy Birthday’, forced the politicians’ hand. In a neat instance of dramatic irony, it was Ronald Reagan who signed the national holiday into law in 1983.

Reagan, or ‘Raygun’ as he was fond of calling him, was the butt of a stream of jokes by Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and provocateur who held up a mirror to America and told people what was really going on. He was the thorn in side of the politicians and he was the poet of the ordinary folk, singing about their hopes and dreams. But to actually change the statute books, irrevocably – like Stevie had set out to do – that, for Gil, was the point of the struggle.

What a previous generation, the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, had set in motion, drove Gil to write, to teach and to perform. And when Gil finds himself on stage in the National Mall, where Martin Luther King, Jr. had been in 1963 to deliver his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, he looks up: “And I could see for the first time, I could see what this brother had seen long before, what really needed to be done.”

How he got to that point there is what The Last Holiday sets out to tell. It begins in Jackson, Tennessee where Gil was raises up by his grandmother, Lily Scott – “[Jackson] was where I began to write, learned to play piano, and where I began to want to write songs.” The picture Gil paints of his grandmother is of a remarkable Southern matriarch, church-going, upright, and though never educated herself, a woman who had insisted on teaching Gil to read from a young age. They would pick out chapters from the Bible every night, or in the Chicago Defender pore over articles featuring Jesse B. Semple, the character created by Langston Hughes. Segregation was still in force in the south, and after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, Gil was one of the first students to be admitted to a white school in November 1962.

Much of the first half of the book is given over to the education that Gil receives, moving with his mother to New York, where he gains a scholarship to the prestigious private school, Fieldston, and then to Lincoln University, the alma mater of Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court. It was his victory in the Brown v. Board of Education that started the path to desegregation and left an indelible mark on the mind of the young artist.

But by the time he gets to Lincoln, though, it’s no longer quite the same institution. The school has become a co-ed that year, and Gil buries himself in the library. Much to the dismay of his professors, he insists on taking a sabbatical after his first year to write The Vulture, a murder mystery novel in the mould of Chester Himes’ stories. There’s a particularly evocative scene in the memoir when Gil recalls working in a dry cleaners on the outskirts of the university campus, typing away at his novel and getting college friends to read his work. The publishers agree to take on The Vulture, and Gil returns to Lincoln with a book deal aged just 21.

During his time at Lincoln he also meets Brian Jackson. It would be their musical partnership that would create so many timeless albums, from Winter In America right through to Bridges in 1977. And Gil’s already demonstrating his political colours when he closes down the university in protest over inadequate medical facilities after a friend dies on campus.

What the reader can’t help but notice is the unbridled confidence and the razor sharp wit of the young Gil Scott-Heron (“I’ve always been a lot too arrogant and a little too fuckin’ wise,” he would say on Don’t Give Up). He waltzes into publishing houses to demand publishing deals, or into Flying Dutchman where Bob Thiele, a teenage hero of his who had produced albums for John Coltrane, offers him a contract. He befriends with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Stevie Wonder often turns up unannounced to his shows, and there are scores of other famous encounters, from Sydney Poitier to Michael Jackson.

In the Last Holiday, the makings of Gil Scott-Heron are plain to see. As listeners of his music will know, the subject of his art had always been the world around him, regular folk scrambling together a living, and he tried to give them hope. ‘It’s Your World’, he told them. But in Gil’s late career, especially on Spirits in 1994 and that final album for XL in 2010, there was a return home. On that final record too he evoked Jackson, Tennessee and Grandma Lily Scott.

Still, for all he reveals, Gil leaves many stones unturned. There are those last 30 years, which are elided in a couple of inconclusive chapters; there’s little about the music itself, how the songs were written, what they meant. The story also tends to jump around in time, each chapter, in its brevity, has an almost parable-like quality. When the publisher writes at the end of the book, “We are greatly indebted to Tim Mohr, whose editing skills and commitment to the project have resulted in The Last Holiday reading as smoothly as it does,” you suspect that publishing The Last Holiday has been no holiday for those involved.

On reflection, what we’re left with is fragments, “jagged jigsaw pieces”, to quote a line from one of his well-known songs. His memoir may not captivate the casual reader, but for those who have been touched by the artist, either live or on record, The Last Holiday is the final chance to spend time in the company of a man who may not have changed the statute books, but whose influence is incalculable, wrought as it is on the hearts of those who heard his message.

The Last Holiday by Gil Scott-Heron is published by Canongate.

One of the most promising rappers to emerge from the Midwest in recent years, talks to Shook about Dame Dash, jazz in Jamaica and wanting to tour the UK.

Stalley what’s good, what you been up to?

I’m good man I just came from a photoshoot, right now I’m just chilling.

I see you’ve been running round a lot lately with the ever-impressive Creative Control. Is there some kind of deal or is that just a friendship thing?

Nar that’s family. There is nothing as far as a deal. They just blessed with talent. We pretty much shoot everything together. That’s the home team, we just basically do what we can do to help each other. That’s basically the two guys from Creative Control and Dame Dash.

STALLEY AT HIGHLINE BALLROOM from Creative Control on Vimeo.

How is it to have someone of Damon Dash’s stature fighting your corner?

It’s great to have someone like Dame giving me advice in terms of the next step. I actually met Dame through Creative Control and like Dame bought into my talent, like he was fan of everything I was doing, so that was an honour. Obviously someone like Dame can bring me into places where I can be seen and heard, because of his name, like you know my videos have appeared on MTV. Having Dame around is great you know, it’s a good thing.

I see recently you and Curren$y, went to Jamaica but apparently it wasn’t for a holiday, you went for a jazz festival. You weren’t just out there smoking?

Nah (laughs), like we was working real hard out there. We shot five, no four videos and recorded like four and a half songs for the week we was out there. Like we was really putting in work. It was also nice to catch another vibe, like another change of scenery. In Jamaica there were palm trees and sand, meanwhile back home it was snowing.

How is DD172, Dame Dash’s Tribeca studio space? Because that place seems like something else.

It’s hard work every day, we always recording and shooting videos. DD172 is real family -oriented, it’s like work, boom, boom, boom.

You recently went back home to Ohio after a long time away. What was that like?

Ar man, it was beautiful. It was such a joy to be back home. Went to my old high school, saw all my old friends, haven’t really been able to go back as much as like. Hopefully one day, I will be fortunate get to a level, where I can go back whenever I please and go and get some of that real food again.

Apparently you left Ohio long ago for dreams other than music?

That’s correct, like I left in pursuit to become a basketball player. Unfortunately I injured myself, and had to take a detour route. Basketball is not like no.2 for me, rap and ball go hand in hand, I love them both the same.

If you make money like Jay, you can then maybe build another team for Ohio (other than the Cleveland Cavaliers)

Right, right (laughs) that is the only reason why I am doing this.

You and Curren$y seemed to have a built strong following. Have both of you spoken about maybe coming to the UK and performing?

Yeah, we trying to get sort something out you know. Like the UK is a great place in terms of the music they like, like for my music personally, the UK would really appreciate the lyricism of my stuff, and would relate to like the day-to-day struggle and day-to-day happiness. Yeah we would love to come to the UK.

XXL just released their list of 10 Freshmen for 2010. You were not on the list, did you feel anyway or you don’t really pay attention to that sort of stuff?

Nar man I don’t really feed into all of that. Like a lot of publications are always the last to know what is good. They are usually the ones to miss the boat. All I can worry about is myself. People also tell me the type of artist I am, I can’t worry, because Apple doesn’t worry about what Pepsi is doing, they have different consumers, so I’m not upset or anything.

Your mixtape ‘MadStalley’ was impressive, but to me the mixtape was like really musical in terms of instrumentation. You also have a spoken word track, can you explain the title of that track and what made you do a spoken word song?

TinLizyFordToARollsRoyceBoy. Yeah basically, it’s about like coming from the bottom to the top, like from me being a country boy to now being a city slicker, it represents the growth. The reason why it was spoken word, it felt with the vibe of the mixtape – like you said the mixtape was musical – I personally did not use the mixtape as a chance to prove my skills or to exhibit them, it was more like a story so people could know more about me, like an introduction to myself. You see a lot of rappers do not make themselves vulnerable, like they have all of the women, whips and chains…

But the end of the day, they are still human beings.

Right exactly. After all is said and done, it’s easy to make punch lines but it’s hard to make a song people feel.

What time of music do you like listening to, in terms of rap?

I’m not really listening to anyone right now, like nothing is moving me now.  Like I listen to a lot Mos Def, Common, Nas like those artists constantly stay in my rotation. I really love OutKast too, ATLiens is one of my favourite albums. But anyone out right now, not really, only Blu.

Yeah he’s nice.

I think Blu is dope yeah.

His ‘Below The Heavens’ album with Exile, was a lot of stuff.

I felt that shit had the same formula as me, personal, he was telling you about his life and stuff. Then on the Johnson and Johnson stuff, he went super lyrical to show everyone he can go hard. When I listen to Illmatic, I felt like I grew up in that project. The same with Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik, I feel like I am hanging out the Cutlass with Andre and both are elbows are just poking out. Like I believe good music takes you on a journey, like I mention a place back home called ‘Lincoln Road’, whenever I spit that the homies back home get a little hype.

At the moment you don’t have a label situation do you?

No at the moment there is no label situation. There are some labels talking to me at the moment though. For now, I am not really interested in signing anything. Just enjoying music, and working on my next project, an EP. I am also working on a separate project with Ski Beatz, halfway into that and that is sounding real classic.

Speaking of Ski Beatz, the 24hr Karate School when is that dropping?

Stalley March 30^th

24 HOUR KARATE SCHOOL TEASER from Creative Control on Vimeo.

Are you sure?

Oh definitely. You can get it from iTunes, some other different places. On that I am straight killing everybody on like it’s nothing.

Lastly do you have a Twitter account yet? I heard you speaking before, how you don’t feel it’s for you at this moment in time. Care to speak on that?

Yeah basically I am not really a fan of the whole social networking thing. The reason why is because it gives everyone a voice that shouldn’t necessarily have a voice. But the thing is people talk about me all day on Twitter, like asking, ‘Where is Stalley?’ and ‘Who is Stalley?’ Like I prefer people talking about me, rather than me talking about me. When they make me a trending topic, I might think about joining Twitter.

www.myspace.com/madstalley

www.stalley330.bandcamp.com