THE LAST POETS
Genres: African Fusion, RnB, Funk, Jazz Related Soundtracks, Dub, Ska, Reggae, Avant-Garde Jazz • United States

The Last Poets are a group of poets and musicians, rising from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement. Jalaludin M. Nuriddin, an Army paratrooper who chose to go to jail instead of fight in the Vietnam War, founded the group in prison after converting to Islam and learning to spiel, an earlier form of hip-hop emceeing. With Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole, Nuriddin was released from prison, joined the East Wind workshop in Harlem, and began performing their spiels, along with music, on the street. The group adopted the name the Last Poets in 1969 from a South African writer named Little Willie Copaseely, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over. They released an LP in 1970, The Last Poets, which reached the Top Ten album charts. Oyewole was arrested for robbery before a tour could begin, and he read more...