Walt Whitman was a firm believer that America was a land of poetry, and would continue to be for its history. Of course, this is true of so many countries. The Czech Republic’s founding president was a man of letters and the country is better off for it. For so many years this was true of America as well, but the past few decades would seem against that. The poets and writers have faded from the television screen on which they represented art and good reason in political and cultural debate. They largely faded from the newspapers, where a poet named Edgar Allen Poe first gained public foothold. Poetry became something one had to seek out, not something so interwoven in the American tapestry that it was as evident as the stars and stripes that adorn the American flag. But is that really true? Perhaps poetry has been there all along, just shifting against our expectations like so many times in the past. The tone may have changed. The tenor may have changed. Even the color of those writing it has changed (and changes again), but one thing has remained the same. The soul of poetry still enraptures the public eye, and, in fact, still demands its focused attention to this day. It’s as mainstream as any other part of culture. That’s right; we’re talking about rap music. Not only that. We’re talking about the Last Poets. Appreciate.

   All one has to do is look at the history of rap music to see its obvious place in poetics. The Last Poets are generally credited as being the progenitors of rap music. They were a music collective composed of numerous poets and musicians arising around the Black Nationalist movement of the 1960s.  Founding member Jalal Mansur Nuriddin chose jail as an alternative to fighting what he saw as an unjust war in Vietnam. He met fellow members Omar Ben Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole in jail where they engaged each other in an early style of rapping known as “spiel”.

   Upon their release in the late ‘60s the group was founded, and continued to expand under a 1969 writers’ workshop in Harlem called the East Wind.  A top ten album sound followed and posterity has carried their memory since. They found their purpose in the experimentation of things literary and not necessarily aural.  Their rhythmic chanting and written word music further explored the literary potential of music only touched on by blues and folk musicians.

   Yes, words were the centerpieces of those musical traditions as well, but the Last Poets explored a music formed around the verse. It was something entirely new. Throw in the fact that these weren’t pieces predominately composed of oral traditions passed down from generation to generation, but through poets who came to the medium of music to further spread their message and we can clearly see the distinction between rap music and other genres of music in terms of placement within the literary canon. We are, in fact, left with only one conclusion.

   Rap music was founded by poets. 

   Even the name the Last Poets — besides providing a nominal nod to the literary form — has its roots in poetry. The group’s name comes from a poem by the South African revolutionary Keorapetse Kgositsile. Kgositsile believed himself to be among the last breed of poets to exist on this Earth before the epidemic of guns and violence would render things such as poetry obsolete. Founding members Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, Umar Bin Hassan, and Abiodun Oyewole shared in that belief and wished to expand upon it with their founding of the group.
It’s hard to overstate how integral the Last Poets became to emerging cultural identities within the African-American population of the 20th century.

   Joseph Ankany wrote of the Last Poets:

   “With their politically charged raps, taut rhythms, and dedication to raising African-American consciousness, the Last Poets almost single-handedly laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop.”

   Rap remains the largest genre of verse to today’s youth in terms of reach, viability and relevance. Millions of teens around the world, on every continent where there are people, are writing in verse this very moment because they hold a deep affection for rap. It touches more people regardless of color, sex, or creed than any other kind of verse written today. While serving the minds of all, it uplifts the lives of the malnourished, misunderstood, and mistreated. It is the clearest example we have of an art inspiring its constituency. There’s a reason Jay-Z is walking through the West Wing, and Wyclef Jean was once considered for the presidency of Haiti. There’s a reason why nearly every rapper you’ve heard of has charitable organizations (that you don’t hear about). There’s a reason youths all over the Middle East pick up a mic instead of a weapon. Rap, as much as we criticize it for its supposed embrace of violence, still allows the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword to remain true.

   Whitman, who was also a staunch anti-slavery advocate, is proved the prophet in the preface to his Leaves of Grass when he says:

   “Of all nations the United States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets and will doubtless have the greatest and the greatest use of them.”

   In Whitman’s day, America was one of the sole democratic experiments in the world. Democracy was an idea he cherished and respected. He saw freedom as an inherent part of reaching for greater human expression. Whitman would be pleased at the spread of global democracy and would no doubt amend that above statement to reflect that belief. That being said, Black America has spawned the most popular form of poetry in the world today.

   We can condemn rap music as jingoism not really representative of the cultural whole. Or we can snicker at it like others do and say in accents Homie This and Homie That. We can ridicule and we can let our great and infallible intellects pounce at pronunciation, but do we condemn all of cinema for the travesties of Michael Bay? Do we condemn all of bookdom for the atrocities of Twilight and The Hunger Games? Or music for the entire ’80s? No, it would be foolish and absurd. Such is the same with rap music. To do that would be to turn a blind eye to the great diversity that exists within the rap community, both in terms of content and demographics. Look at the rap music of the great Chuck D. Or KRS-One. Or Mos Def. Or Mc Solaar. Or Prophets of da City. Or any number of rap artists, then come back and tell me rap is all about blunts, bitches, and 40s.

   Rap music has become a global force, allowing kids everywhere to engage in verse in a way that is meaningful and tangible to them. It is no coincidence, if one searches out the places of misery and oppression on this Earth they will repeatedly find rap artists railing against injustice with every drop of ink in their pen and every audible decibel of their voice.

   It started with a group of poets. Whitman said that poets would always have a place in America. They would always be respected.

   He was right.

   Let’s not forget the Whitman himself thought that poems ought to be read aloud and wished to be an orator. Karen Karbiener writes:

   “He was compelled by the powers of the human voice; Whitman might have realized early dreams of becoming an orator had he possessed a stronger tonal quality or more dramatic flair and talent. But even as a writer, he never stopped measuring the worth of words by their sound and aural appeal.”

   Whitman liked it so much that with the help of Thomas Edison he became the first person to record a poem read audibly. And just like Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, his words were pressed in wax.

   So there you go. The first rap artist. And the Last Poets. A perfect combination.