Poet and spoken word pioneer Gil Scott-Heron has died at age 62. Scott-Heron passed away Friday (May 27) upon returning home from a trip to Europe. His exact cause of death is unknown at this time.

Edited: According to People online, Scott-Heron was known to be HIV positive and had struggled with drug addiction throughout a large part of his life.

In the 1970s, Gil Scott-Heron’s smooth rebellious storytelling set to simple bass notes and jazz synthesizers became the precursor for today’s rap/Hip Hop music and spoken word genres. His album, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, was heavily sampled by today’s rap artists such as Kanye West and Common.

Kanye featured prose from Scott-Heron’s “Comment #1” for the spoken word ending of his track “Lost In The World” (“Who Will Survive in America”) off his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album.

Click the link below to hear Kanye’s track featuring Gil Scott-Heron.