With Holy Terror, the Last Poets lay their claim to be the originators of hip-hop. Containing some of the Poets' most trenchant political and social lyrics, Holy Terror shows the Last Poets, Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole, still as fiery and sharp as ever. "Homesick" and "Pelourinho" are descriptions of slavery that are as vivid and riveting as any movie. "Black Rage" paints a portrait of urban hell that will chill any listener to the bone. The album is also superbly produced, with a funk sound that supports the lyrics while never overshadowing them. Credit is due to seminal producer Bill Laswell, who, armed with a first-class band made up of P-Funk alumni George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell, along with Grandmaster Melle Mel, constructs dense, intricate grooves that are simultaneously modern and traditional. For both fans of the classic Last Poets albums and newcomers interested in one of the missing links between classic funk and modern hip-hop, Holy Terror is worth a listen. ~ Victor W. ValdiviaEntertainment Weekly (4/24/95, p.56) - "...Original members Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole are back with an album that brings together the power sources of raw black music....The didactic, funky verse offers wry commentary over minimal percussion and free-associative riffing from Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell..." - Rating: B Q (8/95, p.124) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...the emphasis here is on a group adding their distinctive rapping style to the modern beats they perhaps inspired. Twisting their rhymes into lazy, less meter-driven rambles than in modern rap, they tackle black issues and the street problems of drugs and poverty with an undeniable authority..." Down Beat (11/95, p.60) - 3.5 Stars - Good/Very Good - "...the Last Poets...forefathers of politically conscious rap--pick up where they left off a generation ago....their poetry is great with Umar Bin Hassan's shining exuberance and preacher-like exclamations and Abiodun Oyewole's muscular delivery..." Vibe (8/95, p.131) - "...a junkyard of sounds...all bagged and knotted by producer Bill Laswell's magnetic ear for gritty black music....HOLY TERROR works because it's painfully honest and its creators aren't trying to live on the fame plantation..." The Source (6/95, p.76) - "...each brother rocks the mic for half of the album....just having new material from the dynamic group from the late '60s is relieving..." Option (9-10/95, p.117) - "Most credit the Last Poets with helping to invent hip-hop....the Poets did set the tone for hard-headed, politically engaged music and rhymes..." Melody Maker (8/26/95, p.39) - "...[producer Bill] Laswell allows the essentially dated, yet still delicious, characteristics of each player to break through....it f***ing ROCKS, old-skool thumps, little flecks of Sugarhill funk guitar stretching over the undertow, all elastic boombip and bodypoppin'..." NME (Magazine) (6/24/95, p.57) - 8 (out of 10) - "...almost wholly terrific. If their anger has mellowed, their grip on reality hasn't, and at the very least they deserve the maximum credit for not looking out to the streets and saying `I warned you'..."
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