9

SUNDAY

Plug in, turn on, and sit back. More than likely you won’t see the fiery loudmouth Gil Scott-Heron on your screen. The dashiki-clad word warrior who spat out Malcolmized polemics in the early ’70s doesn’t make too many television appearances—not in small part because in between crooning subliminally political pop songs he was telling whitey to kiss his ass. Now, the former UDC instructor is calmer, grayer, and thinner, issuing conga-driven peace messages to a new crowd of hiphop- and spoken-word heads who have discovered echoes of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” among contemporary beats and rhymes. But as Mos Def has pointed out, a lot of things have not changed, and Scott-Heron’s followers still cling to the raw protests collected on the new Evolution (And Flashback): The Very Best of Gil Scott-Heron, which even today transmit reality clearer than HDTV ever will. Scott-Heron performs at 8 and 10 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Rear. $20. (202) 337-4141. (Ayesha Morris)