MONDAY, OCTOBER 3RD
DEEP SPACE
FEATURING
FRANCOIS K
W/ SPECIAL GUEST.
DUB GABRIEL & UMAR BIN HASSAN (LAST POETS)
(Dub Gabriel's 33rd Birthday as well as D.G. moving
to Berlin
party-Last D.G. show in New York)
@
CEILO
18 Little West 12th Street NYC
between Washington Street and Greenwich Street.
9pm doors
$5 before 10pm-$10 after
www.deepspacenyc.com
Producer/DJ Dub Gabriel and Last Poet's founder Umar
Bin Hassan are no strangers in working together.
Since 1999 Umar and Gabriel have collaborated in many
ways. First with Umar's now legendary appearance on
Dub Gabriel's Baraka Orchestra album, then with Dub
Gabriel and Prof. Shehab releasing Umar's album
produced by Bill Laswell.
As well as recorded work together, they have performed
together at sold out shows at Tonic as well as at
Warsaw in Greenpoint When Dub Gabriel put together an
amazing night with Baraka Orchestra, Umar Bin Hassan
and Rajasthani Sufi's Musifar all sharing the stage.
We are very excited to anounce the third meeting with
Umar Bin Hassan and Dub Gabriel at Francois K.'s Deep
Space night @ Ceilo.
This night will be a celebration of not only the
return meeting of these two people, but also it will
be the final show Dub Gabriel will perform before
moving to Berlin Germany as well as Gabriel's 33rd
Birthday.
Please join us in celebrating this special event.
UMAR BIN HASSAN BIO
Step back, all ye wannabe rappers, and check out one
of the originals who made hip hop possible. Before
Africa Bambaata was throwing parties in the Bronx ?
before Prince Whipper Whip was rocking with the
Fantastic 5 ? and before the Rock Steady Crew ever
attempted their first windmills, Umar Bin Hassan and
the Last Poets were making rhythm and poetry live on
the streets of Harlem.
More than 30 years later, Bin Hassan still speaks with
a hurried urgency, as if every word could be his last.
His voice still resonates with the fervor of the Last
Poets' seminal This Is Madness (recently named one of
the 20th century's best albums by Vibe magazine).
But tell him that early '70s poems "Forty Deuce
Street" and "Niggers Are Scared of Revolution" are
jewels from a bygone era, or that he's an icon to
younger street poets, and he tries to change the
subject.
"Being an icon is not for me," Bin Hassan, 56, says by
phone. "Shit, I'm still used to sleeping on the floor,
hustling just to get by, and battling my own demons.
Plus I don't take myself too serious like that. I'm
just as wild and crazy as the next person."
In some ways, however, Bin Hassan has slowed. After
years of drug and alcohol abuse, he says he's just
grateful to still be alive. He's currently clean and
living in Flint with his younger sister. He still
tours under the banner of the Last Poets and also
makes solo engagements.
"When I speak about victory in my poems, the real
victory is to become content with yourself," Bin
Hassan says. "I'm not ashamed of that part of my life.
The drugs and crack and all of that. That's me. You
have to stand up and face yourself, face the inner
demons that lurk within your soul. You can't hide and
pretend. If I hadn't faced myself and hit the bottom
the way I did, I might not be alive today."
The Last Poets first spoke out against poverty and
racial injustice at a time when artists and
revolutionaries were hanging out on the same urban
street corners; the Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron and
the Watts Prophets were picking up microphones and
djembe drums while the Black Panthers and the Young
Lords were picking up guns.
The Last Poets officially started May 19, 1968, at a
Malcolm X birthday celebration in Harlem. The group's
originators ? Abiodun "Dun" Oyewole, Gylan Kain and
David Nelson ? took their name from a poem by South
African poet Willie Kgositsile, who wrote about the
necessity of putting aside poetry in the face of
looming revolution. Bin Hassan joined a year later.
In all, there've been seven poets, and, in addition to
jousting with the establishment, they've spent a good
deal of time fighting each other in various groupings
and regroupings. In one altercation, former Last Poet
Jalal Nurridin stabbed Bin Hassan in the neck. And for
a while, there were two competing groups claiming the
name.
Bin Hassan says that the group now consists of
himself, Oyewole and percussionist Don "Babatunde"
Eaton. Bin Hassan owns the name to the group, he says.
"I had the common sense to trademark the name back in
1995, and I don't care how upset anybody else is that
I did that shit. None of those dumb niggas were smart
enough to do it. Out of all the poets, I'm the crazy
nigga, wild-ass Umar, that's got the name. And if I
didn't own the rights to it, some white boy probably
would and then we'd really be in trouble."
While Bin Hassan and Oyewole (who spoke to Metro Times
in a separate phone interview from New York) are
pleased that many of today's rap and hip-hop artists
cite the Last Poets as pioneers, both poets are
critical of some aspects of today's scene.
"When we rapped, it was all about raising
consciousness and using language to challenge people,"
Oyewole says. "When I wrote [about] `party and
bullshit' it was to make people get off their ass. But
now `party and bullshit' was used by Biggie, used by
Busta Rhymes, but in a nonconscious way. That's
difficult for us to deal with."
Nonetheless, a number of the more socially and
politically conscious emcees are planning a tribute
album to the Last Poets. When We Come Together is to
feature Common, Bilal, Dead Prez, Chuck D, Keith
Murray, Buckshot, Kanye West, Erykah Badu and others.
It's slated for release on West's new label next year.
"I'm glad the project is coming out, but I'm a little
pissed off about the way it's being done," Bin Hassan
says, complaining that his poems are being shortened
for airplay. "Fuck the radio."
Asked about his partner in rhyme, Oyewole says he's
most proud of Bin Hassan's recent turn to writing love
poems.
"Umar has been able to take all of the anger that
stems from living in this society and the difficulties
of his addictions and turn them into love poems,"
Oyewole says. "Our society needs to hear love poems
right now, especially from a brother that's been
through what Umar has been through."
Bin Hassan says, "I'm getting close to that victory,
man ? of not being afraid to express who I really am.
Some days it's hard, but, slowly and surely, I'm
getting there."
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