From the Corner to the Cornerstone

Without a doubt, the current musical craze is Hip-Hop. People from all walks of life love Hip-Hop. We have been moving this direction for a couple generations. That said, few people know the progenitors of Hip-Hop. I'm not talking about The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash or Afrika Bambaataa. Neither am I talking about Run DMC, EPMD, BDP or PE.

I'm talking about The Last Poets. There were others like The Watts Prophets and Gil Scott-Heron, but my focus here is on The Last Poets.

They put out some of the bravest stuff I've ever heard on wax. These guys got going in 1969 in Harlem and said things that even some black folks didn't want to hear especially in songs like "Niggers Are Scared of Revolution". They said stuff that was incendiary and they intended to get a reaction from it. They had no fear. They got down to the bottom of things in an uncompromising way!

The first album of theirs that I heard was called Chastisement from 1972. This album is not as widely known as their earliest records. Despite being somewhat more accessible thematically, it is no less forthright and abrasive (when it needs to be). The final track is dedicated to the inimitable black American enterprise of 'Jazz'. "Bird's Word" drops just about every name in 'Jazz' history. Perfect rhymes and beats along with a wailing saxophone are present. There are also several breaks where the song hovers in a somewhat haunting aural space. For example,  Cannonball Adderley's 1966 album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy is referenced by shouting the three words slowly in an empty, echoey fuzz. Then the voice trails off into the depths before the song kicks back in.

The album starts with a jazzy instrumental track backed by a rolling collection of drum beats and African lyrics chanted all the way through. It's titled Obabi (Ogun). Ogun or Ogoun is a machete-wielding spirit from Yoruba mythology. The Yoruba are one of the largest ethnic groups in west Africa centered mostly in Nigeria, but the spirit also appears in some parts of the Caribbean. This song, which is over 10 minutes long is absolutely spell-binding!

The bass, drums, chanting and saxophones combine to make this one of my favorite tracks in all of music. It speaks volumes about the depth of The Last Poets interest in all things black. This story is mainly from Caribbean voodoo in Haiti. Ogun is the spirit of fire, iron, hunting, politics and war. Perhaps they were trying to summon his powers to manipulate the overbearing inequity of the American landscape?

No matter how you cut the cake, with lyrics like, "And so the power's in the hands of the ruling classes/Playing God with the fate of all the masses/So the people don't get any in the land of the plenty/Cos' E Pluribus Unum means One Out Of Many!" and song titles like 'Before The White Man Came' it's evident that these guys were not trying to fly under the radar.

They were not only seminal artists in the creation of Hip-Hop, they were important voices of the collective experiences of Black America. Surrounded by permanent displays of opulence as young people in New York and recognizing that that opulence was out of their reach, their outlook was grim and their music reflected it. Their music was deeply Afro-centric and at times bordered on what some consider racist, but it was always prescient. I have never heard anything like The Last Poets.

If you have never listened to or heard of The Last Poets and you are a fan of Hip-Hop... I implore you to seek them out. Again, Gil Scott-Heron is not to be overlooked either. His early record Small Talk at 125th and Lenox is just as inflammatory and significant. Particularly the songs "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Enough".

True fans of Hip-Hop, study up!