The story of Saul Williams’ introduction to a world beyond hip-hop was born at the age of nineteen when three important artists were introduced to him- Terence Trent D’Arby, Lenny Kravtiz and Seal.
“When I was a kid I was very closed-minded up to the age of 19, in which I only listened to hip-hop, I didn’t even listen to R & B, ” Williams explains by phone. “I saw all those guys as really cool, definitely getting the girls, but definitely different from the whole uniformed culture that I was part of it. They could be black and be totally different.”
Th past decade has seen the thirty-two-year-old Saul Williams emerge as one of the world’s most recognizable poets and become an outspoken figure in his intellectually and urban fashioned following. After graduating from Morehouse College with a B.A. in philosophy, Williams moved to New York City to take a Master’s Degree at New York University in Acting and found himself at the epicenter of the New York cafe poetry scene. In 1995, he enraptured audiences with his spoken word poetry at the Brookly Moon Café’s fable “Open Mic” sessions and in 1996 he became the Nuyorican Poet Café’s Grand Slam Champion.
Williams’ significant break came with his lead role as Ray Joshua in the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner Slam in 1998. The story of a man who discovers the power of poetry in prison, while learning to overcome being a victim, no matter how many times you’re labeled a victim; Williams immediately garnered attention with his free-styling poetic verses and uncanny acting ability. Woven within in the story of Slam, was the belief that freedom is born by choice, not by a set of circumstances, a philosophy that remains true with Williams as he’s breathed creativity into becoming a world-traveled poet, activist, musician and actor.
With his second full-length album, simply titled Saul Williams, the artist is convening upon a new chapter in his life. A period that is burgeoning upon an “age of enlightenment,” as he firmly believed from his younger days that life begins at thirty-three.
Clearly with a self-titled album, Williams is more comfortable in his own skin than ever before. The album features vocal support from Zach Del La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and keyboard work from Ikey Isiah Owens of The Mars Volta. Aside from some assistance, the album was predominately masterminded, programmed and sung all by Williams. Obviously, this one-man band effort was quite a challenge for a “poet” more comfortable working behind a Mead notebook than a mixing board. Williams won’t overplay his experience as a musician when he says – “I don’t have musicianship experience, I play instruments like a kid plays instruments, like playing in the terms of ‘lets play.’”
Listing British rockers Radiohead and Emo-rock bands Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes as modern-day influences, Saul Williams converges upon a style that he’s labeled as “industrial punk hop.” The album visits boombastic frontiers of raw drumming and radioactive sound effects that blend with the urgency of Williams’ poetry.
“A lot of poetry I’ve written is very energetic itself and so when I think of music I think in terms of – there’s some music I find is beautiful and there is some music that I find very driven and beautiful,” says Williams about molding mood with harmony. ” For me in terms of thinking of poetry and connecting it with music, it’s easy for me to try and not take as much of a poetic license.”
This relates to a sense of urgency that Williams describes in his recent infatuation with the work of Thom Yorke and Radiohead, a band he got turned onto around the filming of Slam. It was here on the set that he was flung a copy of OK Computer and it immediately spoke to Williams, as he worked to gel sound with emotion.
“Like in ‘Idioteque,’ who knows what the fuck he’s talking about, but you can fucking feel and sense the urgency of what he’s saying so the abstract stuff speaks of a higher reality. It’s real and it’s urgent,” explains Williams about the Kid A tune.
Although Radiohead is a few hip-hop collaborations away from being an urban favorite, it’s Williams matured eclectic tastes and outspokenness towards politics and relationships that makes his work increasingly intriguing, whether it be poetry, acting, hip hop or rock and roll. Although he believes expressing himself in the form of music on record as “the most powerful artistic medium.” He ads, “If it has the power to make a nation nod their head then it can help society change it’s face.”
In much of Williams’ work he’s never been shy to poke clashing words at commercial rappers, those big players that preach of the luxurious diamonds and wheels lifestyle. However, it’s a controversial belief that Williams rubs off as bygone, one in which his perspective is currently constructed around balance and meaning.
“There’s so much cool stuff happening, everyone’s going through changes, even Jay-Z is learning a lot about himself,” Williams explains about the Brooklyn rapper. “So its not that I was ever an anti person, it’s just this sentiment that it doesn’t matter and it matters all about money and stuff like that. It does matter, it becomes matter and it becomes real if you inject it into reality and don’t project bullshit. In fact, the other day I became a Mase fan, I heard a new song and listened to the lyrics and was like – “I like you now.”
As for his voice sounding like Lenny Kravitz on a number of the tracks on the album, Williams laughs and is clean to admit, “yeah, that would just be a mistake on my part.”
Mistakes aside, there won’t be any Gap commercials in Williams’ near future, as he continues to communicate through fresh mediums, further opening himself and his audience up to the power of the spoken word.
