THE LAST POETS 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: 1977's Delights of the Garden, which saw The Last Poets accompanied by legendary soul-jazz sticks-man Bernard Purdie, remains one of the proto-rap innovators' greatest albums. The team behind the Dynamite Cuts label clearly agree, because they've decided to stick two of the set's most magical tracks on one must-have 45. On the A-side there's a chance to savour LP highlight 'It's a Trip', where the band sings and speaks over skittish, loose-limbed Purdie breakbeats, fizzing funk guitars and rubbery bass. Turn it over for special (and tastefully executed) 7" edit of 'Blessed Are Those Who Struggle', a classic chunk of politically charged proto-rap featuring killer drum work from the ever-impressive Purdie. In a word: essential!

Review: Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of hip-hop history will tell you that the roots of rapping can be traced back to the early '70s spoken word albums of The Last Poets. It's because of this that the collective's recent album, Understand What Black Is (their first for nearly two decades), was such a big deal. Here the title track is given the remix treatment. Mala handles the A-side, delivering vocal and instrumental passes that re-cast the track as a skanking, dub-wise excursion full of ricocheting electric piano notes and suitably heavy bass. 2000 Black main men Dego and Kaidi Tatham take a more up-tempo approach on the flip, wrapping the Poets conscious vocals and instrumentation around their own fizzing broken beat rhythms, jazz-funk chords and darting electronics.