Gil Scott-Heron by Brian Jackson & Yasiin Bey (RISING)

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Hip hop wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for Yasiin Bey. Bey wouldn’t be who he is if it wasn’t for the revolutionary poetry of Gil Scott-Heron. And Gil Scott-Heron wouldn’t have found his groove if it wasn’t for his brother in music, the jazz legend Brian Jackson. Jackson, the teenage piano prodigy, met Scott-Heron, the bohemian beatnik, at Lincoln University in 1969. Over nine years, nine albums and countless hours on the road they opened ears and minds to the civil rights movement and redefined what music could do—blending astonishing streams of social consciousness with fluid, intuitive funk. 

Last year, this lineage found a state of cosmic balance at RISING when Yasiin Bey reunited with Talib Kwali for their first ever Naarm show as Black Star. The pair threw down a set that included ‘Brown Skin Lady’—a vivid, Brooklyn love letter that owes a lot of its steeze to a sample from the Scott-Heron and Jackson classic ‘We Almost Lost Detroit’. 

Now, in 2026, we’re going way deeper into that soulful energy in a world premiere. After paying tribute to MF Doom and performing The Ecstatic in 2023, then Black Star in 2024, Bey is back and he’s going straight to the source—the godfather of rap Gil Scott-Heron and his musical muse, Brian Jackson, the godfather of consciousness soul. 

The revolution will not be televised. Come bear witness.