The Last Poets

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2019

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Last Poets are a groundbreaking collective with a sound that merges spoken word with jazz and hip hop. They came on the scene in the late sixties with a message of unity, social justice, and empowerment. Their message included frank lyrics about all that was wrong with their world and all that could be done to make it better. They're the godfather's of hip hop

Two of the groups original members Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan have a new album out called Transcending Toxic Times. It fuses spoken word with jazz rhythms and hip hop. It's wonderful.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.4	I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.
0:21.9	The last poets are not quite a band, maybe a collective or an idea.
0:29.9	Let me back up.
0:30.9	In 1968, at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, the group of black musicians, writers and activists
0:36.9	formed a group.
0:37.9	They called it the last poets.
0:40.9	They read poems, played drums, brought in other instruments later.
0:44.9	And when they spoke, they spoke plainly.
0:47.9	Their message was about unity, social justice, empowerment, all that was wrong with their
0:53.6	world and what could be done to make it better.
0:56.5	They put out their first record in 1970, a self-titled album on a small label run by the same
1:01.6	guy who produced Jimmy Hendrix and Miles Davis.
1:04.9	It was Groundbreaking.
1:18.4	Over 50 years have gone by since the last poets formed.
1:21.9	Dozens of members joined and left the group, dozens of albums were recorded.
1:27.5	You can feel the spirit of the last poets in rap legends like Common and Public Enemy
1:32.3	and a Tribe Called Quest.
1:33.9	You can hear them, literally hear them sampled in hundreds of hip-hop records by NWA, Biggie
1:40.1	Smalls, Digible Planet, Snoop Dre, Mad Lib, The Coo, others.
1:44.6	We've also served as guiding lights and mentors to generations of performance poets, especially
1:50.5	in New York.
	...

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