Gylan Kain (sometimes simply KAIN, Kain or Kain the Poet) is an American poet and playwright. He is a founding member, in 1968, of the Original

Last Poets The Last Poets are several groups of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African-American civil rights movement's black nationalism. The name is taken from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who bel ...

(along with Abiodun Oyewole and David Nelson, with

Felipe Luciano Felipe Luciano (born 1947, East Harlem, New York City) is a poet, community activist, journalist, media personality, and politician. He is of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage. He is known for his significant involvement in both the Young Lords Party an ...

soon added). Kain personally created the aggressive, rhythmic delivery of

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

aka performance poetry as it is known today. He often performs with hand drums or backing musicians such as saxophonists and bass guitarists. His work has been sampled without pre-consent by well-known artists including

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

and

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

. One of his performances was sampled into the club hit '' Voodoo People'' by

sampled an excerpt of Kain performing his poem, "The Shalimar" on Dre's track entitled "Intro" from the album entitled "The Chronic." After legal action was successfully taken to procure compensation for work sampled by The Prodigy, spokespersons for The Prodigy claimed that efforts had been made to procure permission from Kain for use of his work but those efforts had been unsuccessful because Kain, who values privacy, could not be located in time.

has yet to compensate Kain for work sampled without prior consent. This has led some fans to criticize Dr. Dre as an hypocrite for exploiting the work of an influential Black artist after building a reputation as an empowering force in the black American community as a founding member of N.W.A. Kain has done multimedia collaborations with the percussionist

Z'EV Z'EV (born Stefan Joel Weisser, February 8, 1951 – December 16, 2017) was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of indust ...

and has appeared with the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

jazz/hip-hop/fusion group Electric Barbarian, appearing on their 2004 album ''él'

He is also the subject of several documentary films. His daughter, Amber Kain, is an actress and playwright. His adoptive son is actor

Khalil Kain Khalil Kain is an American actor, film producer and rapper best known for his role as Raheem Porter in the 1992 crime thriller film ''Juice'' and as the second Darnell Wilkes on the UPN/CW sitcom '' Girlfriends'' (2001–2008). He is also known fo ...

, best known for starring as "Raheem" in the 1992 crime thriller ''

Juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or Cold-pressed juice, pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat ...

'' featuring

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

Discography

*1970 - KAIN: ''The Blue Guerrilla''. *1997 - Baby Kain: ''Feel This''. *2004 - Electric Barbarian: ''él''.

Films

*1971 - ''Right On!: Poetry on Film'' (Original Last Poets). Directed by Herbert Danska. *1990 - ''

Wings of Fame ''Wings of Fame'' is a 1990 Dutch English-language comedy fantasy film (released in the UK on 26 April 1991) directed by Otakar Votocek and starring Peter O'Toole, Colin Firth, Marie Trintignant, Andréa Ferréol and Robert Stephens.

''. Directed by Otakar Votocek. *2018
"Ultramarine"
directed by Vincent Meessen (belgique)

External links

Gylan Kain official siteElectric Barbarian official site

Audio

MP3 of "X-Cuse Me!"
by Electric Barbarian featuring KAIN (click to listen) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) African-American poets American male poets American spoken word poets 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American writers African-American male writers {{US-poet-stub