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Case file s1736 · Music and sport · 2011
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2011
Gil Scott-Heron: Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron. mikael altemark from STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
27 May 2011
Place
New York City · United States
Field
soul, jazz poetry ("The Revolution Will Not Be Televised") · Music on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (New York Surrogate's Court) · Common law
Historical event
Black Arts Movement; the roots of hip-hop
Music and sportSecret children and false heirsDied without a willNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Gil Scott-Heron died with no will; his daughter said a DNA test showed his son was not his, and a Manhattan court ruled the son was an heir

Gil Scott-Heron died in New York aged 62 after a trip to Europe. No will was found. He left three daughters, Raquiyah "Nia" Kelly-Heron, Gia Scott-Heron and Chegianna Newton, and a son, Rumal Rackley. A Manhattan Surrogate's Court judge named Rackley temporary administrator. Rackley said in court papers that his father had asked him to run the estate. In 2011 Rackley sued Gia Scott-Heron, her mother Brenda Sykes and her grandmother Elvira Sykes, alleging they took $250,000 of Scott-Heron's money. That suit settled in early 2013 for an undisclosed sum. Rackley had taken a DNA test in 2011 using DNA from Scott-Heron's brother. In August 2013 Kelly-Heron filed papers asking the court to remove Rackley from the estate, saying the result showed the two men "do not share a common male lineage." Rackley refused a second test. His side pointed to the 1994 album "Spirits," which Scott-Heron dedicated to "my son Rumal and my daughters Nia and Gia." In his memoir Scott-Heron wrote that he did not need DNA to know Rackley was his son. In December 2018 the Surrogate's Court ruled that Rackley and his half-sisters are all legal heirs, and in May 2019 it granted him letters of administration. In February 2025 Rackley was running the estate full time and said his relationship with his half-sisters is strained. In 2026 he remains administrator.

What the law took from it

A father who leaves no will lets his children test each other's DNA in open court.

Sources
  1. Internet ArchiveGovernment record
  2. Internet ArchiveGovernment record
  3. ajc.comPress
  4. The New York TimesPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Gil Scott-Heron died with no will; his daughter said a DNA test showed his son was not his, and a Manhattan court ruled the son was an heir,” story s1736, https://www.celebrity.estate/gil-scott-heron-2011, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportSecret children and false heirsDied without a willNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States