The Last Poets
Encyclopedia
The Last Poets is a group of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African American
civil rights movement's black nationalist thread. Their name is taken from a poem by the South Africa
n revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile
, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over.
The Last Poets have been cited as one of the earliest influences on what would become hip-hop music; critic Jason Ankeny wrote, "With their politically charged raps, taut rhythms, and dedication to raising African-American consciousness, the Last Poets almost single-handedly laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop." The British
music magazine NME
stated, "Serious spokesmen like Gil Scott-Heron
, Gary Byrd, and the Last Poets paved the way for the many socially committed Black [emcees] a decade later."
's birthday), at Marcus Garvey Park
(formerly Mount Morris Park) in the East Harlem
neighborhood of New York
. The original members were Felipe Luciano
, Gylan Kain
, and David Nelson.
The group continued to evolve via a 1969 Harlem
writers' workshop known as East Wind. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin
, Umar Bin Hassan
, and Abiodun Oyewole
, along with percussionist Nilaja Obabi, are generally considered the primary and core members of the group, as it appeared on the group's 1970 self-titled debut and, in various combinations, on subsequent releases. Luciano, Kain, and Nelson recorded separately as The Original Last Poets, gaining some renown as the soundtrack
artists of the 1971 film
"Right On!" See also Performance
(1970 film) soundtrack song "Wake Up, Niggers."
Having reached US
Top 10 chart
success with its debut album, the Last Poets went on to release the follow-up, This Is Madness
, without then-incarcerated Abiodun Oyewole, an album that featured more politically charged poetry and that resulted in the group being listed under the counter-intelligence
program COINTELPRO during the Richard Nixon
administration. Hassan left the group following This Is Madness to be replaced by Suliaman El-Hadi (now deceased) in time for Chastisment (1972). The album introduced a sound the group called jazzoetry, leaving behind the spare percussion of the previous albums in favor of a blending of jazz
and funk
instrumentation with poetry
. The music further developed into free-jazz–poetry with Hassan's brief return on 1974's At Last, as yet the only Last Poets release still unavailable on CD
.
The remainder of the 1970s saw a decline in the group's popularity. In the 1980s and beyond, however, the group gained renewed renown with the rise of hip hop music
, often being name-checked as grandfathers and founders of the new music movement, and themselves collaborating with Bristol
-based British
post-punk
band the Pop Group
, among others. Nuriddin and El-Hadi worked on several projects under the Last Poets name, working with bassist and producer Bill Laswell, including 1984's Oh My People and 1988's Freedom Express, and recording the final El Hadi-Nuriddin collaboration Scatterrap/Home in 1994.
Suliaman El-Hadi died in October 1995. Oyewole and Hassan began recording separately under the same name, releasing Holy Terror in 1995 (re-released on Innerhythmic in 2004) and Time Has Come in 1997.
Their lyrics often dealt with social issues facing African American
people. In the song "Rain of Terror," the group criticized the American government and voiced support for the Black Panthers.
More recently, the Last Poets found fame again refreshed through a collaboration where the trio (Umar Bin Hassan) was featured with hip hop artist Common
on the Kanye West
-produced song "The Corner
," as well as (Abiodun Oyewole) with the Wu-Tang Clan
-affiliated political hip hop group Black Market Militia
on the song "The Final Call," stretching overseas to the UK
on songs "Organic Liquorice (Natural Woman)" "Voodoocore" and "A Name" with Shaka Amazulu the 7th. The group is also featured on the Nas
album Untitled
, on the songs "You Can't Stop Us Now" and "Project Roach."
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, aka Lightning Rod (The Hustlers Convention 1973), recently collaborated with the UK-based poet Mark T. Watson (aka Malik Al Nasir
) writing the foreword to Watson's debut poetry collection, Ordinary Guy, published in December 2004 by the Liverpool
based publisher Fore-Word Press
Ltd. Jalal's foreword was written in rhyme, and was recorded for release in 2008 in a collaborative album by Mark T. Watson's band, Malik & The OG's, featuring Gil Scott-Heron
, percussionist Larry McDonald
, drummers Rod Youngs and Swiss Chris, New York Dub poet Ras Tesfa, and a host of young rappers from New York and Washington, D.C.
Produced by Malik Al Nasir, Lloyd Masset, Larry McDonald, and Swiss Chris, the albums Rhythms of the Diaspora; Vol. 1 & 2 are the first albums of their kind to unite these pioneers of poetry and hip hop with each other.
In 2010, Abiodun Oyowele was among the artists featured on the Welfare Poets
' produced Cruel And Unusual Punishment, a CD compilation that was made in protest of the death penalty, which also featured some several current positive hip hop artists.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
civil rights movement's black nationalist thread. Their name is taken from a poem by the South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile
Keorapetse Kgositsile
Keorapetse William Kgositsile is a South African poet and political activist, and was an influential member of the African National Congress in the 1960s and 1970s. He lived in exile in the United States from 1962 until 1975, the peak of his literary career...
, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over.
The Last Poets have been cited as one of the earliest influences on what would become hip-hop music; critic Jason Ankeny wrote, "With their politically charged raps, taut rhythms, and dedication to raising African-American consciousness, the Last Poets almost single-handedly laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop." The British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music magazine NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
stated, "Serious spokesmen like Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
, Gary Byrd, and the Last Poets paved the way for the many socially committed Black [emcees] a decade later."
History
The original Last Poets were formed on May 19, 1968 (Malcolm XMalcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
's birthday), at Marcus Garvey Park
Marcus Garvey Park
Marcus Garvey Park, or Mount Morris Park as it is referred to by the people in the neighborhood, is located in Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park interrupts the flow of Fifth Avenue, which is routed around the park via Mount Morris Park West. The park is bounded by 120th...
(formerly Mount Morris Park) in the East Harlem
Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
neighborhood of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The original members were Felipe Luciano
Felipe Luciano
Felipe Luciano is an American poet, community activist, journalist, media personality, and politician. He is of Puerto Rican heritage....
, Gylan Kain
Gylan Kain
Gylan Kain is an American poet and playwright. He was a founding member, in 1968, of the Original Last Poets...
, and David Nelson.
The group continued to evolve via a 1969 Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
writers' workshop known as East Wind. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin
Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, born in Brooklyn, New York, 1944, is one of the founding members of The Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians that evolved in the 1960s out of the Harlem Writers Workshop in New York City.-Biography:...
, Umar Bin Hassan
Umar Bin Hassan
Umar Bin Hassan is an African-American poet associated with The Last Poets. He sold his younger sister's record player to purchase a bus ticket to New York City, where he joined the Last Poets...
, and Abiodun Oyewole
Abiodun Oyewole
Abiodun Oyewole , is a poet, teacher and founding member of the American music and spoken-word group The Last Poets that developed into what is considered the first ever hip hop group....
, along with percussionist Nilaja Obabi, are generally considered the primary and core members of the group, as it appeared on the group's 1970 self-titled debut and, in various combinations, on subsequent releases. Luciano, Kain, and Nelson recorded separately as The Original Last Poets, gaining some renown as the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
artists of the 1971 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
"Right On!" See also Performance
Performance (film)
Performance is a 1968 British crime drama film; the film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970. Directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, Performance stars James Fox and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones in his film acting debut.-Plot:...
(1970 film) soundtrack song "Wake Up, Niggers."
Having reached US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Top 10 chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
success with its debut album, the Last Poets went on to release the follow-up, This Is Madness
This Is Madness
-Track listing:#"True Blues" – 2:00#"Related to What Chant" – 1:08#"Related to What" – 3:09#"Black Is Chant" – 0:56#"Black Is" – 2:29#"Time" – 1:39...
, without then-incarcerated Abiodun Oyewole, an album that featured more politically charged poetry and that resulted in the group being listed under the counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
program COINTELPRO during the Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
administration. Hassan left the group following This Is Madness to be replaced by Suliaman El-Hadi (now deceased) in time for Chastisment (1972). The album introduced a sound the group called jazzoetry, leaving behind the spare percussion of the previous albums in favor of a blending of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
instrumentation with poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. The music further developed into free-jazz–poetry with Hassan's brief return on 1974's At Last, as yet the only Last Poets release still unavailable on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
.
The remainder of the 1970s saw a decline in the group's popularity. In the 1980s and beyond, however, the group gained renewed renown with the rise of hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, often being name-checked as grandfathers and founders of the new music movement, and themselves collaborating with Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
-based British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
band the Pop Group
The Pop Group
The Pop Group are a British post-punk band from Bristol, England, formed in 1978, whose dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz, funk and dub reggae. Their lyrics were often political in nature...
, among others. Nuriddin and El-Hadi worked on several projects under the Last Poets name, working with bassist and producer Bill Laswell, including 1984's Oh My People and 1988's Freedom Express, and recording the final El Hadi-Nuriddin collaboration Scatterrap/Home in 1994.
Suliaman El-Hadi died in October 1995. Oyewole and Hassan began recording separately under the same name, releasing Holy Terror in 1995 (re-released on Innerhythmic in 2004) and Time Has Come in 1997.
Their lyrics often dealt with social issues facing African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
people. In the song "Rain of Terror," the group criticized the American government and voiced support for the Black Panthers.
More recently, the Last Poets found fame again refreshed through a collaboration where the trio (Umar Bin Hassan) was featured with hip hop artist Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....
on the Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
-produced song "The Corner
The Corner (song)
"The Corner" is the second single released by rapper Common on his sixth album, Be. It features a chorus and production by Kanye West as well as spoken word lyrics by The Last Poets. The song's lyrics deal with street corners in poor neighborhoods. The song's beat contains samples from "You Make...
," as well as (Abiodun Oyewole) with the Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...
-affiliated political hip hop group Black Market Militia
Black Market Militia
Black Market Militia is a rap group composed of Killah Priest, Timbo King, Hell Razah, Tragedy Khadafi and William Cooper. They released their first - Black Market Militia - in 2005, through Performance Records, invisioned and initiated by Mitchell Serbes, Gary Hertzan and Mariel Maffetone. They...
on the song "The Final Call," stretching overseas to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on songs "Organic Liquorice (Natural Woman)" "Voodoocore" and "A Name" with Shaka Amazulu the 7th. The group is also featured on the Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
album Untitled
Untitled (Nas album)
The untitled ninth studio album by American rapper Nas was released by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records on July 15, 2008 in the United States, with earlier dates in some other countries. Its original title—Nigger—was changed due to controversy surrounding the racial epithet...
, on the songs "You Can't Stop Us Now" and "Project Roach."
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, aka Lightning Rod (The Hustlers Convention 1973), recently collaborated with the UK-based poet Mark T. Watson (aka Malik Al Nasir
Malik Al Nasir
Malik Al Nasir is a British author and poet, born in Liverpool, England in 1966 to a Welsh mother and a Guyanese father. He grew up partly with his family in Liverpool and after the paralysis of his father, he was taken into local authority care...
) writing the foreword to Watson's debut poetry collection, Ordinary Guy, published in December 2004 by the Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
based publisher Fore-Word Press
Fore-Word Press
Fore-Word Press Ltd. is an independent publishing house based in Liverpool UK. It was founded in 2004 by CEO Malik Al Nasir with the intention of giving voice to minority ethnic authors, who for one reason or another - could not get their manuscripts published in the mainstream. Fore-Word Press has...
Ltd. Jalal's foreword was written in rhyme, and was recorded for release in 2008 in a collaborative album by Mark T. Watson's band, Malik & The OG's, featuring Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
, percussionist Larry McDonald
Larry McDonald
Lawrence Patton McDonald, M.D. was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the seventh congressional district of Georgia as a Democrat...
, drummers Rod Youngs and Swiss Chris, New York Dub poet Ras Tesfa, and a host of young rappers from New York and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Produced by Malik Al Nasir, Lloyd Masset, Larry McDonald, and Swiss Chris, the albums Rhythms of the Diaspora; Vol. 1 & 2 are the first albums of their kind to unite these pioneers of poetry and hip hop with each other.
In 2010, Abiodun Oyowele was among the artists featured on the Welfare Poets
The Welfare Poets
The Welfare Poets are an Afro-Caribbean Hip Hop band that was established in 1990 by Ray Ramirez and Hector Rivera at Cornell University. They have toured the United States, Puerto Rico, South America and across Europe...
' produced Cruel And Unusual Punishment, a CD compilation that was made in protest of the death penalty, which also featured some several current positive hip hop artists.
Albums
- The Last PoetsThe Last Poets (album)The Last Poets is a 1970 spoken word album by The Last Poets.The song "Wake Up, Niggers" is featured on the Performance soundtrack album, also released in 1970.-Track listing:#"Run, Nigger" – 1:14...
(1970)
-
- (Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin), & Umar Bin Hassan)
- This Is MadnessThis Is Madness-Track listing:#"True Blues" – 2:00#"Related to What Chant" – 1:08#"Related to What" – 3:09#"Black Is Chant" – 0:56#"Black Is" – 2:29#"Time" – 1:39...
(1971)
- This Is Madness
- (Poets: Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin) & Umar Bin Hassan)
- Chastisment (1973)
- (Poets: Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin) & Suliaman El-Hadi)
- At Last (1974)
- (Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Suliaman El-Hadi, & Umar Bin Hassan)
- Delights of the Garden (1977)
- (Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin & Suliaman El-Hadi)
- Oh My People (1984)
- (Poets: Suliaman El-Hadi & Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin)
- Freedom Express (1988)
- (Poets: Suliaman El-Hadi & Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin)
- Retro Fit (1992)
- (Poets: Suliaman El-Hadi & Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin)
- Holy TerrorHoly Terror (album)Holy Terror is a 1993 album by rap/spoken word pioneers The Last Poets. The album was released by Polystar Records in Japan and then by Rykodisc Records in the U.S. and UK later that same year, with a release in 2004 by Innerhythmic. The U.S. and UK releases featured one bonus track entitled "Black...
(1993)
- Holy Terror
- (Poets: Abiodun Oyewole & Umar Bin Hassan)
- Scatterap / Home (1994)
- (Poets: Suliaman El-Hadi & Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin)
- Time Has Come (1997)
- (Poets: Abiodun Oyewole & Umar Bin Hassan)
- (Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin), & Umar Bin Hassan)
Appearances
- Hip-Hop samit sharma Docktrine - The Official BoondocksThe Boondocks (TV series)The Boondocks is an American animated series created by Aaron McGruder on Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim, based on McGruder's comic strip of the same name...
Mixtape (2006)
- Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol. 2 (2008)
-
- (Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin nka Jalal, Malik Al Nasir, Shaza, Ras Tesfa)
- The Corner - Common, "Be" (2005)
- Project Roach & You Can't Stop Us Now - Nas, "Untitled" (2008)
- Made In Amerikkka - Reuniting The Last Poets (2008)
- Poetic Justice (1993)
- Excursions - A Tribe Called QuestA Tribe Called QuestA Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...
, "The Low End TheoryThe Low End TheoryThe Low End Theory is the second album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Released on September 24, 1991 through Jive Records, the album produced three singles: "Check the Rhime," "Jazz ," and "Scenario."-Conception:...
" (1991)
Filmography
- 1971 - Right On!: Poetry on Film (Original Last Poets). Directed by Herbert Danska.
- 2008 - The Last Poets, made in Amerikkka (réalisation : Claude Santiago. France, 2008. www.lahuit.com).