Jalal Mansur Nuriddin Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Lawrence Padilla |
| Also known as | Alafia Pudim Lightnin' Rod The Grandfather of Rap |
| Born | July 24, 1944 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 4, 2018 (aged 73) |
| Genres | Spoken word, hip hop |
| Years active | 1960s–2018 |
| Labels | Douglas Records, Casablanca Records, Celluloid Records, On the One, On U Sound, Charly Records, Acid Jazz |
| Website | grandfatherofrap.com |
Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin (July 24, 1944 – June 4, 2018) was an American poet and musician. He was one of the founding members of The Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians that evolved in the 1960s out of the Harlem Writers Workshop in New York City.
He was born Lawrence Padilla in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, New York, USA.[1] Earlier in his career he used the names Lightnin' Rod and Alafia Pudim. He is sometimes called "The Grandfather of Rap".[2]
A devout Muslim, poet, acupuncturist, and martial art exponent (a practitioner of a form of Bak Mei), Nuriddin's talent and genius with words and rhythm are renowned and he produced some epic poems such as "Be-Yon-Der", an 18-minute piece on The Last Poets 1977 album Delights of the Garden, which was originally released on Douglas Records, and later on Celluloid Records.
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