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==Background, recording, and content==
[[File:Gil Scott Heron.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Gil Scott-Heron]] in 1986]]
[[Gil Scott-Heron]] was a poet, [[jazz]] musician, scholar, and novelist of Jamaican and [[African American]] descent.<ref name="Sharrick 2011">{{cite news |last1=Sharrock |first1=David |title=Gil Scott-Heron: music world pays tribute to the 'Godfather of Rap' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/29/gil-scott-heron-godfather-of-rap |access-date=5 January 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=28 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="R&RHoF">{{cite web |title=Gil Scott-Heron |url=https://www.rockhall.com/story-gil-scott-heron |website=Rock and Roll Hall of Fame |access-date=5 January 2022}}</ref> His 1970 debut album, ''[[Small Talk at 125th and Lenox]]'', showcased his many influences, including [[Langston Hughes]], [[Malcolm X]], and the [[Last Poets]], and combined musical influences with social commentary.<ref name="R&RHoF"/><ref name="Bush 2020"/> Scott-Heron stated that he was inspired to write "Whitey on the Moon" by a statement from writer and activist [[Eldridge Cleaver]], who argued that the [[Space policy of the United States|space program]] was
"Whitey on the Moon" was released as the ninth track on ''Small Talk at 125th and Lenox'',<ref name="Bush 2020">{{cite web |last1=Bush |first1=John |title=Gil Scott-Heron Small Talk at 125th and Lenox |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/small-talk-at-125th-and-lenox-mw0000175340 |website=AllMusic |accessdate=June 4, 2020}}</ref> which was recorded late in the summer of 1970 in a studio belonging to [[Atlantic Records]].<ref name="Baram 2014" /> Scott-Heron [[Spoken word|speaks the poem]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Gil Scott-Heron Whitey on the Moon |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/whitey-on-the-moon-mt0010949799 |website=AllMusic |accessdate=June 4, 2020}}</ref> alongside a [[bongo drum]] accompaniment of a sort common in street poetry, and used by contemporaneous artists such as [[The Last Poets]]. The track is just under two minutes long.<ref name="Loyd 2015">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Mobile Desires: The Politics and Erotics of Mobility Justice|editor-last1=Montegary|editor-first1=Liz|editor-last2=White|editor-first2=Melissa Autumn|title='Whitey on the Moon': Space, Race, and the Crisis of Black Mobility|first=Jenna M. |last=Loyd|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137464217_4 |pages=41–52|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2015|doi=10.1057/9781137464217_4|isbn=978-1-349-56684-6}} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="Bongo">{{cite book|first=Iain |last=Ellis |title=Rebels wit attitude: subversive rock humorists |year=2008|publisher=Soft Skull Press|isbn=1593762062|pages=170–171}}</ref> Although the album has been frequently described as being [[live recording|recorded live]] in a [[nightclub]] in [[New York City]], it was in fact recorded in a studio, with an audience present to simulate a live crowd.<ref name="Baram 2014"/> "Whitey on the Moon" narrates the story of Scott-Heron's "sister Nell," who is bitten by a rat while [[Neil Armstrong]] lands on the Moon. It then talks of medical debt that is incurred for her treatment, and rising costs of basic necessities as a result of the [[Apollo program|Moon landings]]. It ends with the sarcastic promise that when the next bills arrive, Scott-Heron would send them by "air mail special to Whitey on the Moon".<ref name="Loyd 2015"/> Due to an error by the musicians, the punchline is barely audible over the drums.<ref name="Baram 2014" /> The first lines of the poem run as follows:
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