Another profoundly influential cadre of artists was the irrepressible Last Poets. An ever-changing trio of New York-area poets, many of whom had taken on the Black Muslim faith, began to preach the ills of American society over a drumbeat at local cafés and political events.

Variously including the poets Gylan Kain, David Nelson, Felipe Jeliciano, Abiodun Obeyole, Omar Ben Hassen, Suliaman El-Hadi, and Alafia Purdin, the Last Poets were the last word in anti-establishment sentiments.

As if a precursor to the vast popularity of the political rap of Public Enemy in 1990, the Last Poets' first album sold over 3,000 copies and spent one week at No. 40 on the U.S. Billboard album charts in 1970. The group followed with "This Is Madness", which included the classic "Mean Machine", a rap production that was remade in 1984 by producer DST: "Automatic push button / remote control / synthetic genetics command your soul!" Lost to obscurity from the early seventies onward, the Last Poets were reissued by Celluloid Records in 1984 and brought the three original members for a reunion album "Oh My People", which featured the keyboard work of P-Funk genius Bernie Worrell, among others.

Streetwise Hip Hoppers looking for a virulent chant or classic rebel rhyme to sample need look no further that the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. Despite the glitzy camouflage of the so-called seventies revival in dress and songs, what was truly visionary of the period was the revolutionary conviction of these particular artists. They dared to imagine complete and total liberation for their people, a theme that fueled the musical exploits of the many great soul groups and funk bands of the mid-70s.

Another important aspect of the Last Poets that is often overlooked is that their rhyme styles were forged as much from street-hustler lingo as from the Nation of Islam doctrines and other political manifestos. Alafia Purdim's 1972 classic Hustler's Convention was a twelve-movement tale of a small-time thug's exploits at a mythical hustler's convention, in which he gets away with thousands of dollars, only to be captured and imprisoned. The violent, heady, hopeless underworld described in rhymes by Purdim was the archetype of today's gangsta rap, and with many of the rap tracks of Hustler's Convention backed up by the monster funk band Kool & the Gang, the streetwise nature of The Funk was once again placed in the center of the thang.

SOURCE: Funk by Rickey Vincent


Funk
by Rickey Vincent
$11.17

Mean Machine - The Last Poets