Yarbrough stated that the song was written for "all the people who had come through the black civil rights movement, who had stood up for truth and righteousness and justice, because human beings need to praise and respect one another more than they do".
[1] The Iron Pot Cooker was based on the 1971 stage dramatization of Yarbrough's one-woman, spoken word show, Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot.
[4] Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot was produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan in 1973.
Other reviews of this album include Billboard: "Yarbrough has stylish traces of Nina Simone and Gil Scott-Heron but her own style of singing and recitation ... are outstanding.
Her songs are all thought provoking", Spin: "Nana Camille is a 'hip-hop foremother'", and CDNow: "The most important rediscovery of the year …" In 1979 she authored (with illustrator Carole Byard) the children's book Cornrows, which won the Coretta Scott King Award.