Editing The Last Poets (section)

===Origins and 1970s===
[[Jalal Mansur Nuriddin]] a.k.a. Alafia Pudim, [[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 19 May 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 24 October that year, the group performed on pioneering New York television program ''[[Soul!]]''.<ref>"{{cite web |url=http://www.thirteen.org/soul/soul-episode-guide-1968-1973/ |title=Soul! Episode List, 1968-1973 &#124; THIRTEEN |access-date=2017-04-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401232551/http://www.thirteen.org/soul/soul-episode-guide-1968-1973/ |archive-date=2017-04-01 }}", SOUL! EPISODE LIST, 1968-1973, WNET, thirteen.org.</ref> 
The Last Poets contributed "Wake Up, Niggers" to [[Performance (soundtrack)|the soundtrack]] of ''[[Performance (film)|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. Following the success of the newly refigured Last Poets first album, founding members Kain and Nelson got together with Luciano and recorded their only album ''Right On'' in 1970, the soundtrack to a documentary movie of the same name that finally saw release in 1971. <!--some sources list the film as a 1968 production--> Luciano, Kain, Abiodune Oyewole and Nelson recorded separately as '''The Original Last Poets''', gaining some renown as the soundtrack artists (without Oyewole) of the 1971 film ''Right On!'' 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.<ref name="Lest We Forget: The true story of the Last Poets by Abiodun Oyewole">Article in ''Blues and Soul'' (April 1981)</ref>

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 - {{ISBN|9780394476209}}).

Having reached US [[Top 40|Top 10]] [[record chart|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<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grandfatherofrap.com/prologue.htm |title=Grandfather of Rap R.A.P - Revolutionary Arts Proverbalization |website=Grandfatherofrap.com |date=1995-10-03 |access-date=2016-03-14}}</ref> 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 Records|Blue Thumb]] album ''At Last'' (1973),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py0rDwAAQBAJ&q=blue+thumb+records++last+poets+1973&pg=PA20|title=Broadening the Contours in the Study of Black Politics: Citizenship and Popular Culture|last=Mitchell|first=Michael|publisher=Routledge|year=2017|isbn=978-1-351-53062-0|pages=20|language=en}}</ref> as yet the only Last Poets release still unavailable on [[Compact disc|CD]].

The remainder of the 1970s saw a decline in the group's popularity in America, although they became quite popular in Europe.