Kain

• Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
• Genres: Spoken Word
• Instrument: Speech/Speaker/Speaking Part
• Representative Albums: "The Blue Guerrilla

Biography

Gylan Kain was a founding member of the seminal poetry/rap group the Last Poets, often cited as a primary influence on hip-hop and popular culture as a whole. Kain's introduction to performance came in 1964 when he was selected to participate in a theater group for troubled New York youths organized by actor Lou Gossett Jr. Four years later he would join the stage with poets David Nelson and Charles Davis (later known as Abiodun Oyewole) for the inaugural performance of the yet-to-be-named Last Poets. Easily the most fiery and confrontational member of the original group, Kain stayed with the ever-growing poetic and percussion collective until 1969, at which point he left the sometimes fracturous group. Some of his work from this period appeared on the Last Poets' 1970 soundtrack release Right On!, and in 1971 he released a scathing solo album, Blue Guerrilla. He remains active in the arts: writing plays (Epitaph to a Coagulated Trinity), collaborating with multimedia artist and theorist Z'ev, and performing both solo and with his group in Europe, the Baby Kain Band. ~ Wade Kergan, All Music Guide

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