The Last Poets is the debut studio album by spoken word recording artists The Last Poets. It was released in 1970 through Douglas Records. Recording sessions took place at Impact Sound Studio with production by East Wind Associates, managers of The Last Poets at the time of recording. The album peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and at #3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States. It spawned a single, "On the Subway", which was sampled by Digable Planets for their 1992 song "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)". The songs from The Last Poets were used by various hip hop musicians, including N.W.A, Notorious B.I.G. and Brand Nubian. The track "Wake Up, Niggers" is featured on the soundtrack album to the film Performance, also released in 1970.

Critical reception

Robert Christgau wrote of the group and the album in his 1970 column for The Village Voice: ""A few weeks ago I saw an incredible performance at the Apollo by a group comprising two shouting poets and an Afro-percussionist, the first time I'd ever really dug on the 'jazz poetry' idea. The recorded version, on Douglas, is a hot seller (over 350,000) and highly recommended; acerbic and exciting and as politically uncompromising as anything ever recorded. Name of group and record: The Last Poets. Frightening and beautiful.""

Track listing

Personnel

Charts