"When the moment hatches in time's womb there will be no art talk, the only poem you will hear will be the spearpoint pivoted in the punctured marrow of the villain.... Therefore we are the last poets of the world."
Willie KgositsileYep time was tight in a frantic time when revolution, brothers and sisters, seemed just around the next corner, things were escalating, politics seemed passé, direct action was the way, but to take action, one had to be AWARE and have self respect and knowledge. Into this came a unique group, who taking Willie Kgositsile's cue, became The Last Poets - men who'd lived all the stuff the braggers brag about, yes, and had the jail time and whatnot to show for it, and were not impressed with themselves and others... No, it was time to stand up, their apocalyptic
tones tore through the movie "Performance", and certainly dispelled any lingering ideas Gil Scott Heron may have had about letting go poetry and following his father as a star of Celtic. Seen nowadays as "Fathers of Rap", they were to echo on to inspire Public Enemy and NWA, they can also be seen as the antithesis of what rap became as they deconstruct with relentless, pitiless poetry every self serving dream you or I or them ever had. Absolutely classic stuff, the relevance has not faded. No matter who you are, look in a scary mirror held up long ago and see...
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