ROOTS - N - RAP #2 : THE LAST POETS
Russell A. Potter, a.k.a. Professa R.A.P.
When asked about the first rappers, knowledgeable hip-hop heads won't
start talking about the Sugar Hill Gang. They know that the Last Poets were
rapping over a beat back when Big Bank Hank was still in diapers. Yet,
partly because of the vagaries of record distribution in the CD era, and
partly because of the fast-forward amnesia fostered by the record industry,
few people have actually heard the Last Poets, save for a few sampled snippets
here and there ("Time is running out"). Complicating matters, the Last Poets'
membership has varied greatly over the years, with rival groups at several
points claiming the title of the "original" Last Poets; recent years have seen
still more rifts between the surviving Poets. Yet despite this confusion,
most of the Last Poets' output is readily available on CD -- if you're willing
to take some time to track it down. Like other neglected Black artists, their
music is actually better known in Europe, and even Japan, than it is in the
U.S., and if you're willing to pay the premium for imports, and have a good
used CD or vinyl shop in your neighborhood, it's possible to find almost
everything the Last Poets recorded. But first, a little history.
The Poets first got together in Harlem in 1969 -- as legend has it, at
a celebration of Malcolm X's birthday in Mt. Morris park, creating what Ty
Williams calls "a workshop of the mind." This original get-together let to
further sessions at "East Wind," a loft located on 125th St. between Madison
and Fifth Avenues, and a record contract with Alan Douglas (known as the
producer of Hendrix's _Electric Ladyland_ LP). It was a time of potent Black
nationalism, and the Black Arts were a major part of that scene; the Poets
took their inspiration from poets like Imamu Amiri Baraka, musicians like
'Trane and Sun Ra, and political organizations like the Panthers and the NOI.
They chose African-flavored jazz rhythms as their backup, rather than R&B,
consciously rejecting (at least at first) mass-media "Black" culture. Theirs
was a performance art, done on the spot at late-night sessions, improvising
individually and collectively, trading words just as jazz musicians traded
melodic ideas, repeating them with variations, coming together with multiple
voices for the climax. Here's a small part of their seminal track, "Run,
Nigger" (a.k.a. "Time is Running Out"):
I understand that time is running out [tick - tock]
I understand that time is running out [tick-tock, tick-tock]
I understand that time is running out [tick-tock, tick-tock]
I understand that time is running out [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Running out as hastily as niggaz run from the Man [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Time is running out on our natural habits... [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Time is running out on lifeless serpents reigning [tick-tock, tick-tock]
over a living kingdom [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Time is running out of talks, marches tunes, chants, [tick-tock, tick-tock]
and all kinds of prayers [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Time ... is running out of time. [tick-tock, tick-tock]
I heard someone say things are CHANGING [changing, things are changing]
Chain ... chain chain CHANGING [changing, things are changing]
from Brown to Black, time is running out on [changing .... tick-tock]
bullshit changes! [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Running out like a bush fire in a dry forest [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Like a murderer from the scene of a crime [tick-tock, tick-tock]
Like a little roach from DDT ...
Hanging out at East Wind in those days was Afrocentricty in action. Yet for
reasons lost in obscurity, not all of the Poets who used to gather there made
it into Douglas's recording sessions. Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain, and David
Nelson -- all absent from the Douglas Records lineup -- went on to perform as
the "Original Last Poets," and gained fame as the soundtrack artists for the
film "Right On!" (1971). Kain went on to a solo project, "Blue Guerrilla," a
sort of slice-of-life set piece which was the inspiration behind K.M.D.'s
banned second album "Black Bastards" (a title taken from Kain's raps).
Luciano's "Jazz" was something of a minor hit, and still brings back memories
for those who heard it at the time:
JAAAZZZZ, yeah, is a woman's tongue
Stuck dead in your mouth, ya dig it?
JAAAZZZZ, yeah, is a woman's tongue
Stuck all in your mouth [uh uh]
JAAAZZZZ, is a tongue, cool
Lickin' ya slowly, revolving around your side, your cheeks
Letting you know who's come to visit
Or teasing and tickling you your teeth
Buffing them 'till they shine-sparkle
Or HOT, WET, like the black streets in El Barrio
After a quick sun-shower ...
Yet these Poets, even though they were there at the start, were eventually
displaced by the Poets who recorded for Douglas, including Alafia Pudim
(a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, a.k.a. Lightnin' Rod), Sulieman El-Hadi,
Abiodun Oyewole, and Omar Ben Hassan (lately known as Umar Bin Hassan), along
with percussionist Nilaja. These were the poets (minus Oyewole, who departed
after the first album) who formed the core of "The" Last Poets from the early
70's into the mid-80's, offering up a potent series of political and personal
commentaries on everything from race relations to Ho Chi Minh to the birth
control pill. Many of their early tracks are landmarks of poetic radicalism,
and have been claimed by rappers as seminal influences: "Niggas Are Scared of
Revolution" and "When the Revolution Comes" predate and prefigure Gil Scott-
Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"; "White Man's Got a God
Complex" struck a potent satirical chord in 1971 (and again in 1994, with a
cover by Flavor Flav on PE's new Muse Sick n Hour Mess Age album which
features backup from Umar Bin Hassan). Still, perhaps because of their unusual
polyrhythms, the Poets aren't sampled as often as they might be, though
artists such as different as Yo Yo, A Tribe Called Quest, and Paris have
looped lines from "Run, Nigger" on their recent albums; they also top many
rappers' prop lists (right up there after God and Moms). Their influence is
great, but it's more an influence on *attitude* than on the music itself.
Yet while the Poets' early work may seem strangely unfunky to a 1994
hip-hop head, they also made interesting moves towards funk and hip-hop in the
late 70's and early 80's. Pudim/Nuriddin, under the name "Lightnin' Rod, cut
a wild track with Hendrix (Doriella Du Fontaine), and hooked up later on with
Kool and the Gang and Eric Gale in 1973 to cut "Hustlers' Convention," which
Nelson George calls "a moralistic blaxploitation film on record." Certainly
listening to it today, it sounds in places like a catalog of outdated hustler
cliches, but it also makes effective use of funk grooves, street noises, and
sound effects in a way that brings to mind the better skits and interludes on
hip-hop discs today. According to David Toop, "Hustlers' Convention" had a
powerful street-level impact, and was used as a break record by some of the
first hip-hop DJ's. Here are a few lines from the opening track, "Sport":
It was a full moon, in the middle of June
In the summer of '59
I was young and cool,
And shot a *bad* game of pool
And hustled all the chumps I could find ...
Nuriddin was the one Poet who clearly paid attention to what was happening
with rap; he put out a beat-box/synth track ("Long Enough") on Brooklyn's Kee
Wee label in 1984, as well as a hip-hop remake of the Poets' "Mean Machine"
with Grandmaster D.ST (the wizard behind the wheels in "Rockit") on Celluloid.
Nuriddin was, and remains, the funkiest of the Poets, as his new album with
El-Hadi, "Scaterrap/Home" proves (see below).
The careers of other Poets have been varied to say the least; aside
from Nilaja (who died of a brain tumor in 1980), they have all carried on
their artistry, though not always in public performances or records. Abiodun
Oyewole, semi-retired since 1984's "Super Horror Show" on the Nia label,
resurfaced to speak with Ice Cube in a _New York Times Magazine_ interview
earlier this year. He's been teaching school and trying to instill pride in
a new generation; while reluctant at first to recognize Cube's work as a
continuation of his own, he came to respect him personally in the course of
the interview. Towards the end, he tells Cube:
"Rap has made itself a billion-dollar industry, and you and some other
brothers are sitting at the top of the charts because of the simple reason
that people have a need to express themselves and hear their own voice. And
you have been that mirror, relecting a lot of the pain and joy they have felt.
But the reality is, what we got to do is take all of that pain and joy and
give it some direction so we can have a tomorrow. But not only for you -- for
me, too, old as I am, I'm 40-plus. I still got to grow. And I've got to
respect that your rebel spirit is the same rebel spirit I had."
"Reality" rappers take note. Oyewole has recently re-united with some of the
other Poets to record a new album, "Holy Terror," released last year in Japan
and just now available in the U.S. (for better or worse, the Poets, like many
Black artists, have enjoyed more honor abroad than at home; their albums are
big sellers in Japan, and Japanese and European labels have been home to most
of their post-Celluloid recordings).
Umar Bin Hassan, who left the group in the mid-70's to pursue his
ambitions as a playwright, also recently returned to the studio, working with
Bill Laswell on a number of projects on the latter's AXIOM label, including a
solo album, "Be Bop or Be Dead," which appeared last year. It features re-
makes of some classic Poets jams ("Niggers Are Scared of Revolution, This is
Madness") as well as new cuts ("Bum Rush," "Personal Things"), and funky
backup from AXIOM regulars Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins, Foday Musa Suso,
and Aiyb Deng. El-Hadi and Nuriddin, for their part, express some bitterness
about Celluloid, Laswell, Celluloid, and Axiom; after their props list on
their current CD, they send out "No thanks to Celluloid Wreckoids N.Y. & Bill
Laswell of AXIOM Wreckoids and the past poets who copped out and dropped out
while we (THE LAST POETS) held out." Still, word is that they are finally
getting back together with Umar Bin Hassan and Laswell and are recording some
sides in London (where Jalal now lives) for a new album. For now, the closest
thing to hearing those recordings is Nuriddin and El-Hadi's current release,
"Scatterap/Home." This album returns to the old questions of Time and Space
(the CD art features their two faces surrounded by the track numbers with
Roman numerals like the face of a clock). The tracks, like this clock, are
split down the middle; the "Scatterrap" half is primarily Jalal's, bring home
funky flavor in a style reminiscent of late-70's Bambaataa as he encourages
his listeners to "See," 'Hear," "Taste," "Touch," "Smell," and "Reason." The
"Home" half is dominated by El-Hadi, who has a style closer to the older Poets
releases; the best track, "Minority of one," drops some potent conscious
rhymes over long-time Poets percussionist Abu Mustapha's congas. For too
long, El-Hadi raps, the white man has been
Hiding my story, making a mystery
Showing himself and calling it history
But we know where they're coming from
Minority of one, under the shadow of the gun.
Although they were hard or impossible to find for many years, most of
the Last Poets' old LP's are now available on compact disc. There's no way to
describe what it is the Poets did or do without listening to it, and these
records are a vital part of hip-hop history and Black history in general; I've
appended a discography of their most notable albums available on CD, as well
as a more detailed LP discography by Jalal himself, transcribed by Culf from
the European release of Scatterrap/Home (the U.S. release omits this
discography). If you want to trace the roots of hip-hop, you owe it to
yourself to check these out.
=========
Last Poets -- Compact Disc Discography
The Last Poets (a) The Last Poets (1970) Celluloid Records CEL 6101
The Last Poets This Is Madness (1971) Celluloid Records CEL 6105
Original Last Poets * Right On! (1971) Collectibles COL-CD-6500
Gylan Kain Blue Guerilla Collectibles COL-CD-6501
The Last Poets Chastisement (1972) Celluloid
Lightnin' Rod Hustlers Convention (1973) Oceana/Celluloid 4107-2
The Last Poets At Last (1974) Celluloid
The Last Poets Delights of the Garden (1976) Celluloid CEL 6136
The Last Poets Jazzoetry (1976)+ Celluloid
The Last Poets Oh! My People (1984) Celluloid
Jalal & Grandmaster Mean Machine (12") Celluloid CELD 6205**
The Last Poets Freedom Express (1988) Celluloid
The Last Poets Retrofit (1992)++ Celluloid CELD 6208
The Last Poets One (1993) Celluloid
Umar Bin Hassan Be Bop or Be Dead (1993)AXIOM 314-518 048-2
The Last Poets Holy Terror (1993) P-Vine 2499 (Japan)
The Last Poets Scatterap/Home (1994) Bond Age BRCD 9471
Abiodun Oyewole 25 Years Black Ark RCD 10335
*= Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain, David Nelson
** The 12" is available on this Celluloid CD, "Roots of Rap Volume 1"
+Jalal's discography lists this as a 1971 release; I don't have a copy & so
can't confirm the date.
++ A remix album -- very funky, but probably part of the reason some of the
Poets are so angry at Celluloid; also contains a remix of "Doriella
DuFontaine."
Where I have a copy, or catalog info., I list the CD catalog number; otherwise
I can only say that the disc appears on other lists as having been available
on CD. I also have not yet received the import copy of "Holy Terror" I
ordered a few weeks ago, and so have no detailed information as to who (aside
from Oyewole) participated in that recording.
Anyone having more information on the Poets on CD or vinyl, please send your
info to rapotter@colby.edu; I hope to compile a more thorough discography, to
be posted at net sites such as JazzNet or the cs.uwp.edu archive.
========
Last Poets Discography -- by Jalal
1. The Last Poets / Self titled / Recorded April 1969 at Impact Sound
Studios n.y.c.
Released in April of 1970 The Last Poets album sells over a million copies
by word of mouth and thus put "Rap" on the map.
Produced by Alan Douglas & The Last Poets & East Wind Associates.
Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin), Omar
Bin Hassan
Percussion: Nilaja
Engineer: Danfort Driffith
2. "This Is Madness" The Last Poets.
Recorded 1971 at Media Sound Studios n.y.c.
Producers: Alan Douglas & Stefan Bright
Cover painting: Abdul Mati (based on a photograph by Bilal Farid)
Engineer: Tony Bongiovi
Poets: Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin) & Omar Bin Hassan
Percussion: Nilaja
3. "Chastisement" The Last Poets 1972-73.
Recorded at Media Sound Studios n.y.c.
Produced by The Last Poets & Stefan Bright
Poets: Jalal Mansur Nuriddin & Sulieman El-Hadi
Percussion: Nilaja, Omanyaki, B, Jalal
Vocals: Oluiyi/Ann
Saxophonist: Sam Harkness
Bass: Jox Hall
Engineer: Tony Bonjovi
Cover Art: Jim Wipox
Photographer: Edmund (Majur) Wartkixs
4. "At Last" The Last Poets 1974
Produced by The Last Poets.
Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulieman El-Hadi, Omar Bin Hassan
Musicians:
Tenor sax: Brother Juice
Alto sax: Claude Laurence
Piano: Casa Burak
Drums: Philip King
Bass: Duke Cleamons
Recorded in a fire house Studio, lower eastside, n.y.c.
5. "Delights Of The Garden" 1976
Recorded at Media Sound Studios n.y.c. & Sound Ideas Studio n.y.c.
Produced by Alan Douglas & The Last Poets
Mastering: Joe Gastuirt, Masterdisk Studios n.y.c.
Cover Art: Abrahim Ben Benu
Photographs: Peter Harron
Art Director: Frank Guana
Chief engineer: Cron St Germaine
Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulieman El-Hadi
Musicians:
Bass & Guitar: Mann
Bass: Alex Blake
Drums: Bernard Perdie
Conga: Aby Mustapha
Percussion: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulieman El-Hadi, Abu Mustapha
6. "Oh My People" The Last Poets 1984
Produced by Bill Laswell
Recorded at Evergreen Studios and mixed at RPM by Rob Stevens
Asst Engineer: Hank Rowe
Cover Design: Thi Linh Le
Group photo: Stephen Critchlow
Poets: Sulieman El-Hadi, Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin
Musicians: Bernie Worrell
Synthesizer: Ayiele Dieng, Chatan Cowbell, Bill Laswell/DMX AMS
Musicians: Jamal, Abdus Sabor/Bass, Ayiel Dieng/Talking Drums/Congas,
Kenyatte Abdur/Rakman/Congas, Philip Wilson/Cymbals/Percussion
7. "Freedom Express" The Last Poets 1988
Produced by: The Last Poets
Recorded at Brent Black Music Co-Op
Willesdex, England
Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulienman El-Hadi
Musicians:
Abu Mustapha/Congas
Sulieman El-Hadi/Congas
Kenyatta Abdur-Rahman/Congas Wx7/Linwood 5000 + Drums
Jamal Abdus Sabor/Bass
Dave Lugay/Bass
Curtis Lugay Memphis/Lead guitar
Engineered by Sid Bucknor
Ray Brown
Arranged by Kenyatte Abdur-Rahman
Mixed by Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin
SINGLES
O'D/Black Thighs 1970 Poets: Jalal/Omar
Percussion: Nilaja
Organ: Buddy Miles
"Long Enough" Last Poets 1981 - Jalal & Sulieman
"Stella Marina" 1984 Working Week, Jalal
"Mean Machine" 1984 Jalal & D.S.T.
"Mean Machine" 1990-91 Jalal & Lugman
OTHERS ALBUMS
"Doriella du Fontaine" 1969
Recorded at Electric Lady Land n.y.c. 12 mix approx.
Lightnin'Rod (a.k.a.Jalal, leader of Last Poets) &
Jimi Hendrix Lightinin'Rod/Jalal
Vocals: Jimi Hendrix/lead (Guitar/Bass)
Buddy Miles/Drums
Released in 1984 as 12" Duck single on the Criminal Label Celluloid
N.Y. (sell-you-into-Avoid-Paying you royalties)
Produced by Alan Douglas
"Jazzoetry" Compilation 1971 Jalal & Omar
"Hustler's Convention" 1973
Lightnin'Rod a.k.a./Jalal leader of The Last Poets
Kool & The Gang
Gene Dinwoodie
King Curtis
Billy Preston
Eric Gale
Cornel Dupree
Tina Turner & Ikettes
Produrced by Alan Douglas
Recorded and mastered at Media Sound
W. 57th St N.Y.C.
Discography written by Jalauddin Mansur Nuriddin
Transcribed by Culf <culf@city.ac.uk>