Photo by Mischa Richter

As confirmed by a publicist for his record label, Gil Scott-Heron, the singer-songwriter and poet, has died. He was 62.

Influential in R&B, spoken word, and hip-hop, Scott-Heron had a strong run of albums in the 1970s. He wrote the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and the phrase entered the cultural lexicon after appearing on his 1970 album Small Talk at 125th & Lennox. Scott-Heron later battled drug problems and was incarcerated for a period during the 2000s, but he returned to music in 2010 and released the acclaimed I'm New Here followed by the Jamie xx collaboration We're New Here earlier this year.

Some videos of his work are below. We'll update with more information when it becomes available.

UPDATE: According to the BBC, "The cause of his death is not clear, but he is believed to have become ill after returning from a visit to Europe," and Scott-Heron's friend Doris Nolan indicated that he died at St Luke's Hospital in New York City on Friday afternoon.

Richard Russell of XL, Scott-Heron's label, posted a tribute this morning here, which included the following:

I have shared some of the best experiences of my life with Gil, and I feel so priveleged to have known him. In that last conversation we had, he advised me not to change who I was just because I had the opportunity to. With that I spent the rest of the day vinyl shopping. Rest In Peace Gil

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (audio) (1970)

"The Bottle" (1974)

"We Almost Lost Detroit" (live; 1990)

"I'm New Here" (2010)__ [#script:http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=Z0eGEwMjq3YyUHIiiqBVNOU6wKAr3I7x&width=452&height=233]||||||__