Gylan Kain is a Harlem-born poet, performance artist, and founder of the Last Poets, a spoken word collective that laid the foundations of rap music starting in the late 1960s by delivering fierce, poetic salvos about racism and oppression over pounding drum beats. He died on February 7 in Lelystad, Netherlands. He was 81 years old.
His son, Rufus Kain, who died in a nursing home, said he died from complications of heart disease. At the time, news of his death was not widely known.
Originally Mr. The Last Poets, comprised of Kain, David Nelson, and Abiodun Oyewole, were affiliated with the Black Arts Movement, a cultural outgrowth of the broader Black Power movement of the 1960s and 70s. Activist poet and playwright Amiri Baraka was a central figure.
With their staccato wordplay and powerful rhythms, the Last Poets were pioneers of performance poetry, often creating portraits of black street life imbued with the guerrilla spirit of revolution.
They made their public debut on May 19, 1968, at a memorial to slain civil rights leader Malcolm X at Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem. Luther King Jr.'s time in Memphis was a difficult time in Black America, but it was also a time permeating calls for dramatic change.
“There was such electricity in the air,” Mr. Kain said in “The Last Poets,” a 2002 documentary that included commentary by Isaac Hayes, Ossie Davis and KRS-One. “So much has happened in the world of black consciousness. It was a great time to be alive for black people, especially young black people.”
The Last Poets were very confrontational, aiming to sway apolitical black listeners into action by using the most racist language possible. Nonetheless, Mr. Kain saw himself as a poet rather than a convert, as evidenced by his lyricism about “James Brown,” one of 18 performances included in the 1970 film “Right On!”
cry pain
Among broken men
The person who stumbled through a vain dream
When the night opens its mouth wide
To grind and swallow you
With pieces of black dust
Another song from that film, “The Shalimar,” used rich, rhythmic language to evoke Harlem bar scenes. , burst out of the floor.”
20 years later, Mr. Kain's intro to the track, “Like we always do around this time,” veers into hip-hop talk and Dr. It appeared as a sample on Dre's landmark 1992 album, “The Chronic,” ” It is also included on Snoop Dogg’s debut album “Doggystyle” in 1993.
The Last Poets became famous as the forefathers of rap, along with their contemporary Gil Scott-Heron, best known for their 1970 masterpiece “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” often referred to as the Godfather of Rap.
In 2010, The New Yorker's Mr. In Scott-Heron's profile, Public Enemy's Chuck D plays the Last Poets and Mr. “Not only is it important,” Scott-Heron said; It is necessary because it is the root of rap. It’s about taking words and juxtaposing them to a kind of music.”
“Examples include Ginsberg and the Beat poet, Dylan. But Gil Scott-Heron is a modern expression of the word. He and the last poet set the stage for all the others.”
Frank Gillen Oates was born in Harlem on May 26, 1942. He was raised by his mother, Hilda Oates, and spent most of his childhood in the South Bronx. As a young man, he attended services at a Pentecostal church, where his thunderous eloquence demonstrated at an early age the power of words to touch hearts and minds.
The family eventually moved to Queens, where he developed a love for theater, especially Shakespeare, at Long Island City High School. After working at Hunter College in Manhattan, he took up acting and created Dylan, a reference to the biblical figure Cain, described by poets Dylan Thomas and Albert Camus as the first rebel. A new, modified name was adopted.
In 1965, Mr. Kane founded the Far East Theater in Manhattan's East Village, which staged plays, readings, and political symposiums. Soon he discovered new ways to reach black audiences, inspired by the Beats, who often performed free verse with jazz accompaniment.
Mr. Kain recalled in a 2002 documentary: “I said to my fellow black artists down in town, ‘I’m going to go to Harlem and write poetry for black people.’ “And my fellow black artists, who didn’t exist yet because it was completely new at the time, were saying, ‘Black people don’t like poetry.’
“So I said, ‘They’ll like mine.’”
The Last Poets developed a passionate following. They performed “Soul!” TV variety shows featuring black musicians and other artists; It is located at East Wind, which served as a cultural center and headquarters on 125th Street. And we tour universities across the country.
But tensions will soon rise. Mr. Kain was dissatisfied with the offer to record an album for a white producer's label. “I declined because he was a businessman who was not interested in what we wanted to achieve together,” he said in the documentary. “Black Power’s mandate was that we establish our own institutions.”
The group's lineup evolved and within two years it split into two factions fighting over the name Last Poets. Mr. Oyewole, along with Alafia Pudim, Umar Bin Hassan and drummer Nilaja Obabi, released an album called “The Last Poets” in 1970, while Mr. Kain, Mr. Nelson and Felipe Luciano (future community activist and television journalist) released an album in 1971. “Right On!” It was included on the LP as the Original Last Poets soundtrack album.
By then, Mr. Kain had already left the group to focus on acting, but he did release a solo album, “The Blue Guerrilla,” which AllMusic's Thom Jurek described as “a set of freestyles before such a thing was even a dream.” ”
“Kain’s angry cat is angry not only about necessary concerns in general, but also about stereotypes in his own community,” Mr. Jurek said.
Mr. Kain has appeared in productions at New York's Joseph Papp Public Theater, including 1971's “The Black Terror,” in which he starred as a revolutionary assassin. In a New York Times review, Clive Barnes wrote that Mr. Kain gave a “beautifully restrained and thoughtful performance,” adding, “His doubts and concerns are always evident, but so are his wilted strength and majesty.”
By 1984, Mr. Kane was tired of life in America. After his close friend was murdered, he moved to Amsterdam and continued acting, performing poetry, and recording, including his 1997 solo album “Feel This”.
Mr. Kain's marriage to June Lum ended in divorce. They had three children. Along with his son Rufus from his relationship with Lian Schaab, Mr. Kain's survivors include two other sons from his marriage, Khalil Kain and Khayyam Kain. two daughters, Khairah Klein (from his marriage) and Amber Kain (from his relationship with Karen Perry); and seven grandchildren.
Despite their enduring legacies, the last poets had little sense of destiny in their early years.
“Our first gigs were for ourselves and lasted for weeks and months,” Mr. Kain said in the documentary.
“When you play an instrument and practice, nothing happens, but when you know the scale, one day the music comes out of there. And one day, I would like to tell you that music was born as a result of these efforts.”