The cause of his death is not clear, but he is believed to have become ill after returning from a visit to Europe.
Scott-Heron’s material spanned soul, jazz, blues and the spoken word. His 1970s work heavily influenced the US hip-hop and rap scenes.
His work had a strong political element – one of his most famous pieces was The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
Scott-Heron’s friend Doris Nolan said the musician had died at St Luke’s Hospital on Friday afternoon.
Scott-Heron was born in Chicago in 1949 – the son of former football player in Britain – and grew up in Tennessee before moving to New York.
He had a long-running song-writing partnership with pianist and flautist Brian Jackson, who he met at Lincoln University.
The pioneering style he developed while working with Jackson, mixing minimalist percussion with poetry, meant Scott-Heron was often described as the godfather of rap.
But the artist himself rejected this title.
