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The Last Poets is a group of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement's black nationalist thread. Their name is taken from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over.

The Last Poets have been cited as one of the earliest influences on what would become hip-hop music; critic Jason Ankeny writes, "With their politically charged raps, taut rhythms, and dedication to raising African-American consciousness, the Last Poets almost single-handedly laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop."[
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Jalal Mansur Nuriddin aka Lightning Rod (The Hustlers Convention 1972) recently collaborated with UK-based poet Mark T. Watson (aka Malik Al Nasir) writing the foreword to Mark's debut poetry collection Ordinary Guy published in December 2004 by Liverpool based publisher Fore-Word Press Ltd link title. Jalal's foreword was written in rhyme and has now been recorded for release in 2008 in a collaborative album by Mark T. Watson's band Malik & The OG's featuring Gil Scott-Heron, percussionist Larry Mc Donald, drummers Rod Youngs & Swiss Chris, New York Dub poet Ras Tesfa and a host of young rappers from New York & Washington DC. Produced by Malik Al Nasir, Lloyd Masset Larry McDonald & Swiss Chris the albums "Rhythms of the Diaspora; Vol. 1 & 2" are the 1st albums of their kind to unite these pioneers of poetry & RAP with each other, as well as the youth of this Rap generation, to be released in 2008