Hey, world

The Writers Workshop had faded by the early '70s, but the Prophets never stopped. We watched the brothers. They did a lil' this 'n a lil' that to make ends meet, kept on being the Watts Prophets. It was like watching monks who had taken a vow or something. "Talk up, not down" became one of their theme poems. They would get kicked in the ass three or five years straight, and keep on comin'. The poetry that they started off with still burns, still smokes, is still real after 30 some years of plowing through American bullshit, Right and Left. Their concerns about racism, classism, generational conflict, ecological and personal responsibility caused some people who have narrow notions to be a mite confused.

But others were not the least bit puzzled--the members of the Hip-Hop Nation who consider the Watts Prophets to be the godfathers of West Coast rap. They were sampled by D.J. Quik, Easy-E, Po' Black Preacher, and others. They recorded and released a new CD, When the 90's Came, with backing from Horace Tapscott, D.J. Quik, and Us3. They toured with Ben Harper. After 30 years, they were "discovered." Over the course of the past few years, after performances at colleges and universities ("Strangely, up till this very moment, we've never been invited to perform at one of the historically black colleges," Hamilton says), festivals, jazz venues, young people's concerts, writers conferences, churches, hospitals, conventions, and God only knows what else, the Watts Prophets are beginning to receive their props. It's about time.

As for the Workshop itself, it was encouraged into being by a stuttering Jewish intellectual, and Budd Schulberg must always be given his props for what he did. He was successful and had nothing to gain by putting his name, his vibe, and his ass on the line. Since the workshop fell apart, no replacement has come forth. And we bleed again, as usual, because the youth in Watts (in all our Watts) has not been asked to re-channel its energies, positively. As long as shit is funky, there's always going to be a need for a Watts Writers Workshop, whether we have one or not.