skeek threads are wicked yo.
Saul Williams is sweet. His albums are a bit patchy. They are good, but they don't get across all he has to offer at all. check out his track on the new coldcut cd 'mr nichols' if you get a chance. And check out his bit on Release by Blackalicious.. sublime. Here's what I wrote on seeing him live last fall:
But how can you even talk about lyricism in comparison to Saul fucking Williams? This dude… this dude. wow. He really is a poet. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone on stage with quite that much conviction and sincerity. Slow songs, thumping songs. Standing still, the crowd enraptured. Dancing around manically, the crowd pumping. During one song, the beats cut out and it was just Saul a capella, and then he lowered the mic and it was just his unamplified voice twisting and bending words like nothing else. He was in fact perhaps at his most powerful a capella, but the raucous grimy beats were a necessary and pretty sweet counterpoint. Saul was pretty much like a preacher a lot of the time, and thankfully his messages were definitley ones I’d agree with. If not, by the end of the show I’d probably be convinced. It was obvious he himself stood behind his words 100%.
This show certainly taught me some things, or rather reinforced them in a boot-to-the-head sort of fashion: people who think hip-hop is not a completely profound method of self-expression, and those that think music shouldn’t be political are completely wrong and should have terrible things done to them if they refuse to change their opinion after being asked nicely.