"When the moment hatches in time's womb there will be no art talk," he wrote. "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."

They evolved from three poets and a drummer to seven young black and Hispanic artists: Umar bin Hassan, Abiodun Oyewole, David Nelson, Gylan Kain, Felipe Luciano, Jalal Nurridin and Suliaman El Hadi.

With withering attacks on everything from racists to government to the bourgeoisie, their spoken word albums preceded politically laced R&B projects such as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and foreshadowed the work of hard-hitting rap groups such as Public Enemy. Their classic poems Niggers are scared of Revolution, This is Madness, and When the Revolution Comes are anthems of revolutionary thought.

During the late 60s and early 70s the Last Poets got down with the radical factions of SNCC (the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), and the Black Panther Party. Together with their comrades, they battled the FBI and the police, and were also arrested for robbing the Ku Klux Klan.

The Last Poets together and individually have recorded several classic albums. They participated in the 1994 Lollapalooza tour; performed in John Singleton's film, Poetic Justice, and helped inaugurate HBO's Def Poetry Jam. There is also a forthcoming tribute album featuring Public Enemy, dead prez, Common, Erykah Badu, and others.