I Last Poets sono andati molto forte per più di un quarto di secolo. Hanno iniziato all'Apollo Theatre e hanno lavorato con artisti come B.B. King, Curtis Mayfield, e Aretha Franklin. Li abbiamo intervistati nel 1997 sul rap moderno e sulla musica hip hop:

"The Last Poets started out as Political community activists and what we wanted to do was articulate what 400 years of the legacy of slavery meant to us emotionally, psychologically and spiritually in America. Because all this was kept hidden inside our guts. And that began the birth of rap. The word rap means to place the blame on a guilty party."