Chants The Last Poets On Douglas Records.

THE LAST POETS are three blacks-Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim, and Omar Ben Hassen. And they want to say something to all you niggers out there in the country. (To you who may be the Last Niggers.) They'd like to remind you once again about rats and roaches, about black children with puffed-up faces and tracks in their arms. Then once more they'd like to remind you of revolution.

The Poets, who have given up their American names, have now cut a record. Called The Last Poets, the album is composed of poems the trio have written, chanted by their authors and accompanied on the African drums by Nilaja. It is a powerful exhortation to blacks to stop acting like "niggers" and start being men. In "Niggers Are Scared of Revolution," Omar Ben Hassen says:

Niggers will tell you they're ready to be liberated

But when you say let's go take our liberation

Niggers reply-I was just playing '.

Niggers are playing with revolution

And losing.

The anger of these poets is not with The Man-racism is accepted as an accomplished fact. Instead, their rage is directed toward black people who act the role of "nigger," playing cards, watching T.V., riding subways in their alligator shoes, incapable of effective action.

You say you don't want to die because . . .

Is it because you have a good job

And a home in the suburbs? . . .

Just because you seem to be satisfied

That's no cause to forget who is the cause

Of black people being exploited and oppressed . . .

You don't believe in our cause

Niggers and Negroes, Listen to this:

It's glorious to die for a cause/ But not because . . .

Throughout the record, accentuated by the driving rhythm of the congas, is the sense of urgency. "Time," the Poets say, "is running out." And for the Bobby Seales of today (the Malcolms of a few years ago), time is truly short. In spite of, or even possibly because of, the fact that people like Angela Davis and Seale have become part of the "cause" among white students, they have a minority of blacks with them. The Last Poets, like the Panthers, try to create a sense of community, a community which is free and whole.

Our Chinese brothers don't cop no plea

For they are hip to unity

Isn't that the way we want to be?

But the Man watches amused

'Cause black people are confused

Conquered and divided/ Tricked and undecided

And the good guys are dead

With slugs through their heads.

They are not interested in white student support. ("Freak looking filthy white rodents are running around spreading new kinds of venereal diseases/ Talking about we love everybody/ we love everybody.") And realistically speaking, what could they gain from the backing of a group more divided, and more impotent than they?

The occasional step beyond this anger reveals a chillingly ironic humor ("You can take niggers out of the country/ But you can't take the country out of niggers.") The absolute pathos of poems like "Jones Comin' Down" and "Two Little Boys," both about addiction, do not have the driving frustration of the other songs, but convey more in terms of human values. Rather than an angry tirade, these are short vignettes of ghetto life, the more real because they are understated.

THE MOST powerful poem in the album is "Niggers Are Scared of Revolution." While castigating their race for its apathy, for its obsession with cool to the exclusion of unity, there is no dissociation. In spite of the poet's furious words, there is love.

. . . Niggers shouldn't be scared of revolution

Because revolution is nothing but change

Niggers come in from work and change into pimping clothes

And hit the street to make some quick change

Niggers change their hair from black to red to blonde

And hope like hell their looks will change . . .

Niggers are LOVERS, are LOVERS, are LOVERS . . .

Niggers love everything but themselves

But I'm a lover too . . . I love to see niggers go through changes

Love to see niggers act/ Love to see niggers make them plays

But there is one thing about niggers I do not love

Niggers are scared of revolution.

If you're white, don't buy The Last Poets. See them onstage if you can; hear the record, at any rate-but it is not really your concern. If you are black, it is.

Oh beautiful black minds

Create, create the world for children to play with life

And not with death.