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All Music Guide:
In the early '70s, Umar Bin Hassan was a member of the street-poet godfathers of rap, the Last Poets. He joined the group in 1969 after seeing them perform in his native Ohio. With Hassan, the Poets released The Last Poets, This Is Madness, and Last Poets at Last. In mid-1993, he released his first solo album, Be Bop or Be Dead. Hassan combined rap, house, and jazz elements on the record, which was produced by Bill Laswell.
Wikipedia:
Umar Bin Hassan (born in Akron, Ohio in 1948) is an African-American poet associated with The Last Poets. He sold his younger sister's record player to purchase a bus ticket to New York City, where he joined the Last Poets. In the mid-1990s, he recorded a solo album titled Be-Bop or be Dead on Bill Laswell's Axiom Records through Island/PolyGram Records
In 1994, Bin Hassan appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, appearing on a track titled "This is Madness" alongside Abiodun Oyewole and Pharaoh Sanders. The album was named "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine.
