Malik & the O.G's
Malik & the O.G's is a spoken-word performance band based in Liverpool. Its founder Malik Al Nasir put the band together in 2006 when he first recorded his poetry to music for his debut album Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol 1 & 2, featuring the late Gil Scott-Heron and The Last Poets′ Jalal Mansur Nuriddin. Malik produced the album for Dubai-based label MCPR Music but as of 2014 the album is unreleased. In 2006 Malik & the O.G's produced a video for the song from the album Africa, an adaptation of one of the poems of the same name in Malik's book Ordinary Guy.
Malik & the O.G's was born out of the political poetry movement that was rooted in the civil rights era in America. In 1984 Gil Scott-Heron toured the UK and met Malik Al Nasir backstage at a concert.[1]
Scott-Heron then trained Malik Al Nasir over a period spanning more than 20 years as a poet and also in the politics of the civil rights era. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin (of The Last Poets) wrote the foreword to the book Ordinary Guy,[2] which was a tribute to Scott-Heron. In 2006 Malik recorded Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol 1 & 2, his debut album, with Gil and Jalal under his band name "Malik & The O.G's".
Malik & the O.G's also featured in a documentary, Word up - From Ghetto to Mecca, with political black poets Gil Scott-Heron, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets and UK Dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, as well as Rod Youngs (drummer from The Amnesia Express). The film premiered at the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester, UK, in 2011 as part of the "Black History Season" dedicated to the late Gil Scott-Heron.
In 2011 Malik & the O.G's were invited to perform at Judith E. Wilson's Drama Studio at Cambridge University. The band at that time included Malik Al Nasir lead vocal, Rod Youngs (Gil Scott-Heron's Amnesia Express), Cambridge-based bass player Tiago Coimbra, Senegalese percussionist Makhou and engineer Tom Parker.
In 2013 Malik & the O.G's were invited by Liverpool City Council to perform their poetry at the inauguration of Liverpool International Music Festival, where the band was placed on the "It's Liverpool - Legends" stage. After the festival Malik was asked to perform some anti-war poetry for online TV station Bay TV where he delivered the politically charged poem "Shock & Awe", performed at the Liverpool International Music Festival, which is based on Gil Scott-Heron's anti-war protest song "Re-Ron".
In 2014 Malik & the O.G's are supporting Jalal of The Last Poets at the live performance of "Hustlers Convention" at the Jazz Café in London.[3] with Jazz Warriors - Cleveland Watkiss, Hawi Gondwe (Amy Winehouse Band) and Orphy Robinson (Don Cherry Band).
Bibliography
- Ordinary Guy by Mark T. Watson aka Malik Al Nasir, Fore-Word Press, 2004 (ISBN 978-0954886707)
- Abdul Malik Al Nasir (as told to Simon Hattenstone), "Gil Scott-Heron Saved My Life", The Guardian, 19 June 2011.
Radio appearances
- BBC World Service, Outlook with Matthew Bannister.
- BBC Radio 4, Saturday Live with Claire Balding and Al Jarreau.
Filmography
- Word Up - From Ghetto To Mecca, Film Premiere, Phoenix Cinema, Leicester, UK.
- "Shock & Awe", Bay TV 2013.
- BBC News, "Liverpool riots 'caused by government cuts'", with Ed Balls.
Discography
- Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol. 1 by Malik & the O.G's
- Poets: Malik Al Nasir and Gil Scott-Heron
- Featuring: Larry McDonald, Rod Youngs, Marie Labropolus, Marivaldo Do Santos, LL Cool J
- Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol. 2 by Malik & the O.G's
- Poets: Malik Al Nasir, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin a.k.a Jalal and Ras Tesfa
- Featuring: Stanley Clarke Larry McDonald, Rod Youngs, Swiss Chris.
- Drumquestra" by Larry McDonald. MCPR Music 2009 (Cat No: CPLM301)
- Co-writer, Co-Producer & Executive Producer Malik Al Nasir
References
- DMC Magazine, "Jalal of The Last Poets".
- BBC Radio Merseyside - Roger Phillips, "Mark Watson, Ordinary Guy"
- Fore-Word Press, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, "About us", Fore-Word Press ltd.
- The Beat Manifesto, "Hustlers Convention - 40th Anniversary Live".
- Reverbnation, Malik & the O.G's.
- ↑ Marc Waddington, "Flashback: How meeting Gil Scott-Heron in riot-hit Toxteth changed my life".
- ↑ Ordinary Guy by Mark T. Watson, Fore-Word Press (2004), Liverpool, UK. ISBN 9780954886707
- ↑ Graeme Thomson, "Hustlers Convention: rap's great lost album", The Guardian, 30 January 2014.