Origins and 1970s Jalal Mansur Nuriddin a.k.a. Alafia Pudim (born Lawrence Padilla),
Umar Bin Hassan, and
Abiodun Oyewole, along with poet Sulaiman El-Hadi and percussionist Nilaja Obabi (Raymond "Mac" Hurrey), are generally considered the best-known members of the various lineups. Jalal, Abiodun, Umar, and Nilaja appeared on the group's 1970 self-titled debut LP and follow-up
This Is Madness featured all but Abiodun, due to his incarceration for political activism. On the third album
Chastisement a third poet, Sulaiman El-Hadi, was added, then Nilija left and the African rhythms began to be replaced by jazzier backgrounds. The Jalal-Sulaiman version of the group made six albums together but recorded only sporadically without much promotion after 1977. The
Original Last Poets were formed on May 19, 1968, the birthday of
Malcolm X, at Mount Morris Park (now known as
Marcus Garvey Park) in
East Harlem, New York City. The original group consisted of
Gylan Kain, David Nelson and Abiodun Oyewole. The group coalesced via a 1969
Harlem writers' workshop known as East Wind. On October 24 that year, the group performed on pioneering New York television program
Soul!. The Last Poets contributed "Wake Up, Niggers" to
the soundtrack of
Performance, a 1970 film featuring
Mick Jagger. When Nelson left, he was replaced by
Felipe Luciano, who would later leave to establish the
Young Lords. When Kain and Nelson began to pursue other interests (theater and ministry respectively), Abiodun Oyewole "recruited" Alafia Pudim (later known as Jalaluddin Mansur) and Umar bin Hassan. In an effort to coerce Kain into allowing the new group to exploit the band's name exclusively, Jalal Nuriddin and other members of the spin-off group physically assaulted founding member Gylan Kain with hammers on a New York City street threatening to murder Kain's wife and children. According to several documentaries and the personal accounts of events by the parties involved, Kain neither retaliated nor gave in to the attackers' demands. After the assault, Kain was left unconscious in the street. Following a legal battle between the two groups concerning ownership of the band's name, The
Right On album was released under the group name The Original Last Poets to simultaneously establish the founding members' primacy and distance themselves from the other group of the same name. Following the release of the refigured Last Poets first album eponymously titled The Last Poets, founding members Kain and Nelson got together with Luciano and recorded their only album
Right On in 1968 (without Oyewole). This album was later the basis of a documentary film of the same name that finally distributed in 1971. In 1972, they appeared on Black Forum Records album
Black Spirits - Festival Of New Black Poets In America with "And See Her Image In The River" and "Song of Ditla, part II", recorded live at the Apollo Theatre, Harlem, New York. A book of the same name was published by
Random House (1972 - ). 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. The album featured more politically charged poetry 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 Sulaiman El-Hadi 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
Blue Thumb album
At Last (1973), 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 America, although they became quite popular in Europe.
1980s and 1990s In the 1980s and beyond, however, the group gained renown with the rise of
hip-hop music, often being name-checked as grandfathers and founders of the new movement, often citing the Jalaluddin solo project ''Hustler's Convention
(1973) as their inspiration. Because of this the band was interviewed in the 1986 cult documentary Big Fun In The Big Town''. 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. The group, El Hadi, Nuriddin and Hassan, also made a guest appearance in
John Singleton's 1993 film
Poetic Justice. Prominent Attorney Gregory J Reed reunited Original Poets in NY the same day of Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years and recorded "Poets Live" in Detroit's Orchestra Hall, and produced "The Return of the Original Last Poets Docudrama" Kain, Luciano, Oyewole and Nelson after 20 years in 1990. Sulaiman 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. Meanwhile, Nuriddin released the solo CD's
On The One (1996),
The Fruits of Rap (1997) and
Science Friction (2004) under the abbreviated name "Jalal."
21st century In 2004,
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, a.k.a. Alafia Pudim, a.k.a. Lightning Rod (The Hustlers Convention 1973), collaborated with the UK-based poet Mark T. Watson (a.k.a.
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. In 2005, 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." Individual members of the group also collaborated with
DST on a remake of "Mean Machine",
Public Enemy on a remake of "White Man's Got A God Complex" and with
Bristol-based
post-punk band
the Pop Group. 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. In 2011,
Abiodun Oyewole and
Umar Bin Hassan performed at
The Jazz Cafe in London, in a tribute concert to the late Scott-Heron and all the former Last Poets. In 2014, Nuriddin performed at the same venue with
Jazz Warriors, the first live performance in 40 years of the "Hustlers Convention". The event was produced by Fore-Word Press and featured Liverpool poet
Malik Al Nasir with his band
Malik & the O.G's featuring
Cleveland Watkiss,
Orphy Robinson and Tony Remy. The event was filmed as part of a documentary on the "Hustlers Convention" by Manchester film maker Mike Todd and Riverhorse Communications. The executive producer was
Public Enemy's
Chuck D. As part of the event
Charly Records re-issued a special limited edition of the vinyl version of Hustlers Convention to celebrate their 40th anniversary. The event was MC'd by poet
Lemn Sissay and the DJ was Shiftless Shuffle's Perry Louis. In 2016,
The Last Poets (World Editions, UK), was published. The novel, written by Christine Otten , was originally published in Dutch in 2011, and has now been translated by Jonathan Reeder for English readers. In May 2018, The Last Poets released
Understand What Black Is, their first album since 1997. The album featured tributes to late artists
Prince and
Biggie Smalls. In August 2022, numerous samples from The Last Poet "Mean Machine" were used in
JID's "
Raydar" In reference to the poet's lines about weapons, peace, and harmony. ==Discography==