Hiphop
Donald Goines (or, Growing Up Gotti)
by Levi Asher on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 02:33 pmThe writings of Donald Goines, an African-American author from Detroit who was murdered in 1974, were at the center of a heated court case in Brooklyn, New York that ended in a not-guilty verdict last week.
Goines' gritty novels enthralled Queens-based cocaine kingpin Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff while he served eight years of a twelve-year sentence for drug trafficking. Upon his release in 1995 McGriff made it his mission to re-invent himself as an entertainment mogul by producing movies based on these books. He befriended two younger record company entrepeneurs, Irv and Chris Lorenzo, who ran the Murder Inc. hiphop label. He acquired film rights to two Goines novels, Black Gangster and Crime Partners, and began working closely with the Lorenzo brothers, who styled themselves "Irv Gotti" and "Chris Gotti", to get the films into production.
Snoop Dogg, Ice T and Ja Rule were in the cast of Crime Partners, but by the time production was completed there wasn't enough money to spend on a theatrical release, and Crime Partners was released straight to DVD, gathering little attention from cinephiles, and too much attention from federal prosecutors, who viewed ex-con McGriff's involvement as a sign that Murder Inc. was laundering money for known criminals.
The case went to court in Brooklyn earlier this year. Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Russell Simmons and others from the hiphop community came to show support for the Lorenzo brothers, as did a large contingent of family members. The prosecution's case turned out to be surprisingly weak, and the brothers were cleared of all charges last Friday.
In essence, what was on trial in Brooklyn was the right of entertainment figures to hang out with criminals. There's no doubt that the "Gotti brothers" tried to embellish their street cred by kicking around with a legendary neighborhood drug kingpin, but the prosecutors were wrong to assume that McGriff was leading his younger friends into a life of crime when in fact indications are that the brothers were trying to help their older friend establish himself in a legitimate business.
What seems dirty about this is that the federal government never seems to mind when white entertainment figures play the same game. It's well-known that ex-convicts like Joey Gallo were employed to lend authenticity to Mafia movies in the 1970's. There was a hilarious episode of the Sopranos about this a few seasons ago, in which young gangster Christopher Moltisante shows up on a fictional Jon Favreau movie set and is treated like a god.
The Lorenzo/McGriff case got a lot of publicity in recent weeks, but unfortunately the novelist at the core of the controversy got little play. Donald Goines is widely read among African-Americans, but his books are largely unknown outside that population. The rapper DMX starred in another movie based on a Goines novel, Never Die Alone in 2004, directed by Spike Lee acolyte Ernest Dickerson, and another Goines title, Daddy Cool is also in the works, though this film probably won't smash through any racial barriers either.
Goines' gritty novels enthralled Queens-based cocaine kingpin Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff while he served eight years of a twelve-year sentence for drug trafficking. Upon his release in 1995 McGriff made it his mission to re-invent himself as an entertainment mogul by producing movies based on these books. He befriended two younger record company entrepeneurs, Irv and Chris Lorenzo, who ran the Murder Inc. hiphop label. He acquired film rights to two Goines novels, Black Gangster and Crime Partners, and began working closely with the Lorenzo brothers, who styled themselves "Irv Gotti" and "Chris Gotti", to get the films into production.
Snoop Dogg, Ice T and Ja Rule were in the cast of Crime Partners, but by the time production was completed there wasn't enough money to spend on a theatrical release, and Crime Partners was released straight to DVD, gathering little attention from cinephiles, and too much attention from federal prosecutors, who viewed ex-con McGriff's involvement as a sign that Murder Inc. was laundering money for known criminals.
The case went to court in Brooklyn earlier this year. Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Russell Simmons and others from the hiphop community came to show support for the Lorenzo brothers, as did a large contingent of family members. The prosecution's case turned out to be surprisingly weak, and the brothers were cleared of all charges last Friday.
In essence, what was on trial in Brooklyn was the right of entertainment figures to hang out with criminals. There's no doubt that the "Gotti brothers" tried to embellish their street cred by kicking around with a legendary neighborhood drug kingpin, but the prosecutors were wrong to assume that McGriff was leading his younger friends into a life of crime when in fact indications are that the brothers were trying to help their older friend establish himself in a legitimate business.
What seems dirty about this is that the federal government never seems to mind when white entertainment figures play the same game. It's well-known that ex-convicts like Joey Gallo were employed to lend authenticity to Mafia movies in the 1970's. There was a hilarious episode of the Sopranos about this a few seasons ago, in which young gangster Christopher Moltisante shows up on a fictional Jon Favreau movie set and is treated like a god.
The Lorenzo/McGriff case got a lot of publicity in recent weeks, but unfortunately the novelist at the core of the controversy got little play. Donald Goines is widely read among African-Americans, but his books are largely unknown outside that population. The rapper DMX starred in another movie based on a Goines novel, Never Die Alone in 2004, directed by Spike Lee acolyte Ernest Dickerson, and another Goines title, Daddy Cool is also in the works, though this film probably won't smash through any racial barriers either.
B-b-b-b Book Unit!
by Caryn Thurman on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 12:16 pmIf 50 Cent's book From Pieces to Weight only made you hungry for more from the world of gangster street thug rap literature, prepare to feast. In a deal with MTV/Pocket Books, Fiddy is launching a new unit, G-Unit Books. The series of novellas and graphic novels, set to hit the market in 2007, will focus on "the truth about The Life; the sex, guns and cash; the brutal highs and short lives of the players on the streets" and will feature G-Unit's own virtuosos Lloyd Banks and Young Buck, in addition to more established "street" authors like Nikki Turner. My own personal hope is that G-Unit Books will also develop a line of hand-crafted chapbooks, complete with bullet hole binding and G-Unit spinner paper pop-ups (calling Robert Sabuda...) built into the covers. We can always dream ...
Blueprints: Life as Art
by Levi Asher on Wednesday, October 26, 2005 03:15 pmA bunch of people once asked me to name a living author who wrote like Jack Kerouac, and they promptly concluded I was insane when I named the hiphop artist Jay-Z.
Well, I'd like to explain why I think this is true, and why I find Jay-Z's work so exciting from a literary point of view. It's not that I think Jay's the best poet in the hiphop world. That title probably goes to the late Biggie Smalls, who could effortlessly toss out lines like "there's gonna be a lot of slow-singing and flower-bringing if my burglar alarm starts ringing", or "Poppa's been smooth since the days of Underoos". What I admire about Jay, on the other hand, is his single-minded dedication to a truth-telling mission. His entire body of work is a mirror gaze -- he has never written about anything but himself.
Well, I'd like to explain why I think this is true, and why I find Jay-Z's work so exciting from a literary point of view. It's not that I think Jay's the best poet in the hiphop world. That title probably goes to the late Biggie Smalls, who could effortlessly toss out lines like "there's gonna be a lot of slow-singing and flower-bringing if my burglar alarm starts ringing", or "Poppa's been smooth since the days of Underoos". What I admire about Jay, on the other hand, is his single-minded dedication to a truth-telling mission. His entire body of work is a mirror gaze -- he has never written about anything but himself.
Fiddy Writes A Book
by Levi Asher on Friday, August 12, 2005 10:34 pmWe've been hearing rumors of one gangsta rapper after another signing a book deal: Jay-Z has one, Nas has one, P. Diddy had one and lost it, and Snoop Dogg apparently has seven.
We haven't seen any of these books yet, but one rapper just kept his mouth shut and quietly got a serious new book out on the shelves: From Pieces to Weight : Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens by the crafty Queens native 50 Cent.
I've written elsewhere on LitKicks about 50 Cent's lyrics. Some find him controversial, but he's undoubtedly one of the funniest and most vivid writers in all of hiphop. I'm not sure if I'm going to love this book like a fat kid loves cake or not, but I'm definitely going to read it and find out.
We haven't seen any of these books yet, but one rapper just kept his mouth shut and quietly got a serious new book out on the shelves: From Pieces to Weight : Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens by the crafty Queens native 50 Cent.
I've written elsewhere on LitKicks about 50 Cent's lyrics. Some find him controversial, but he's undoubtedly one of the funniest and most vivid writers in all of hiphop. I'm not sure if I'm going to love this book like a fat kid loves cake or not, but I'm definitely going to read it and find out.
Bad Boy Book Balk Buried
by Caryn Thurman on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 09:39 pmBack in February, I told you about a little misunderstanding between Sean "P. Diddy - Puff Daddy - Puffy - Bad Boy for Life" Combs and Random House. Thankfully I can report to you today that it's all been resolved. Yes, Diddy and the folks at Random House have made peace and no caps will be popped into any asses. However I'm sure there will be a lot of afterparties. Due to a confidentiality agreement, no one is saying whether Puffy will be paying back the $300K advance -- but the publishing house reports they will not be releasing a volume of Diddy memoirs. While I'm glad they were able to resolve their dispute 'amicably', I must say that this is the kind of bureaucratic struggle that is preventing quality literature from reaching audiences today.
Write It Like It’s Hot
by Levi Asher on Friday, June 17, 2005 03:07 pmThis just in ... Snoop Dogg is planning to write ... not one book, but seven.
This is good news, although we're still waiting for the rumored Black Book by Jay-Z and Nas's mythical autobiography, so I wouldn't bet money on any of these seven books actually existing at any point soon. And I'm kinda confused about this statement that he wants these books to set a good example for kids. Snoop thinks he's got seven volumes worth of good example in him? We are mystified but curious.
This is good news, although we're still waiting for the rumored Black Book by Jay-Z and Nas's mythical autobiography, so I wouldn't bet money on any of these seven books actually existing at any point soon. And I'm kinda confused about this statement that he wants these books to set a good example for kids. Snoop thinks he's got seven volumes worth of good example in him? We are mystified but curious.
Hiphop Postmodernism: Getting Meta With It
by Levi Asher on Friday, May 27, 2005 10:08 amI've written before about hiphop lyrics as postmodern poetry. A few new tracks have grabbed my attention, like the sensitive Feel It In The Air by Beanie Sigel, a haunting tune studded with phrases of compressed ambiguity, as if the singer is buried under his own difficult choices: "My words still skippin through air/I know you can't don't won't get it" ... "This ain't an us or a we or an I thing/It's a good bad karma thing" ... I'm not sure why, but this track just grabs me.
Kanye West disappoints me sometimes. Sure, he's a godsend for any literate hiphop fan, with his appearances on Def Poetry Jam and his confrontational lyrical style. Musically, though, the guy can't sing (a little pitchy, as they say on American Idol) and he relies way too much on that catchy high-pitched backing track gimmick. Enough with the squeaky dolphin voices. However, his new song is about Diamonds in the Sky, and it's at least better than some of those Kanye tracks that got played way too much on the radio last year.
Finally, Compton's The Game is taking hiphop's metafictional streak to new heights with Dreams, which quotes from at least twenty other hiphop classics from the near or distant past. Has there ever been any art form as insular and self-referential as gangsta rap? The Game takes the metaphysical metafictional to new heights with this song. It's like watching comic strip artist Art Spiegelman quote from Krazy Kat, Peanuts and the Katzenjammer Kids in his jumbled comic frames, or like Neal Pollack rampaging through the history of literature naming every name in the book. This song is itself based on a Jay-Z song, "A Dream", which was originally based on Biggie Smalls' song "A Dream". Does all this self-referentiality amount to postmodernism in practice? I can feel it in the air.
Kanye West disappoints me sometimes. Sure, he's a godsend for any literate hiphop fan, with his appearances on Def Poetry Jam and his confrontational lyrical style. Musically, though, the guy can't sing (a little pitchy, as they say on American Idol) and he relies way too much on that catchy high-pitched backing track gimmick. Enough with the squeaky dolphin voices. However, his new song is about Diamonds in the Sky, and it's at least better than some of those Kanye tracks that got played way too much on the radio last year.
Finally, Compton's The Game is taking hiphop's metafictional streak to new heights with Dreams, which quotes from at least twenty other hiphop classics from the near or distant past. Has there ever been any art form as insular and self-referential as gangsta rap? The Game takes the metaphysical metafictional to new heights with this song. It's like watching comic strip artist Art Spiegelman quote from Krazy Kat, Peanuts and the Katzenjammer Kids in his jumbled comic frames, or like Neal Pollack rampaging through the history of literature naming every name in the book. This song is itself based on a Jay-Z song, "A Dream", which was originally based on Biggie Smalls' song "A Dream". Does all this self-referentiality amount to postmodernism in practice? I can feel it in the air.
The Return of Seen and Heard
by Caryn Thurman on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 10:43 amAfter a long hiatus, we're back with what's moving and shaking in the literary and publishing world. In addition to several upcoming book awards and publishing fairs here are a few items that caught my eye over the past few weeks.
-- While Bob Dylan is up for a National Book Critics Circle prize (winners will be announced March 18), another music legend is making news in the publishing world. Yes, Sean "P. Diddy - Puff Daddy - Puffy - Bad Boy for Life" Combs is being sued by Random House over a dispute in which the publishing company claims Puffy decided just to keep the $300k advance it paid for his memoirs -- which he never completed. I'm sure he's been busy writing his stories of J. Lo, meeting the Bushes and flamboyant awards show arrivals and parties. I think he just didn't want to overshadow the success of Dylan's Chronicles, Vol. 1.
-- On the Road again ... Earlier this month, the 120-foot long scroll of Jack Kerouac's On the Road manuscript was again unfurled -- this time at the University of Iowa Museum of Art. Fans can catch a glimpse of the yellowed and fairly tattered literary artifact in Iowa City through March 12, then the scroll will continue its four year national tour of museums and libraries.
-- Possibly destined for a paper mill near you ... the towering oak that was known as "Kesey's Tree" in Menlo Park, CA fell victim to root rot last month. What would later become a local shrine to Ken Kesey, the gnarled oak reportedly shaded the cottage where Kesey began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
-- Speaking of rot, this just in from the "please stop making horrible movies from books" department: It seems that the screenplay adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's novel The Corrections is floating around for review. And the reviews aren't good -- what a surprise. While I personally didn't care for this "must-read" novel, I'm not sure I want to someday find out that one (or all) of its characters will be played by Tom Hanks.
-- As many of you know, former president Bill Clinton won a spoken-word Grammy Sunday night for My Life. What you may not know ... in an effort not to be outdone, the rumor is that John Ashcroft may have his eye on another national office -- Poet Laureate. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
-- What are they doing in the Hemingway House? Fear of being overrun with tourists has prompted Ketchum, Idaho residents to attempt to buy and move the last home of Ernest Hemingway. In 1961, Hemingway shot and killed himself in the concrete and wood house. The Idaho Hemingway House Foundation (which boasts Tom Hanks, ahem, as a board member) hopes to open the house to the public and opposes the move.
Of course the biggest news this week was the death of playwright Arthur Miller. We'll be posting a retrospective on his impact and career on Monday, but in the meantime -- which literary news items and events are on your mind today?
-- While Bob Dylan is up for a National Book Critics Circle prize (winners will be announced March 18), another music legend is making news in the publishing world. Yes, Sean "P. Diddy - Puff Daddy - Puffy - Bad Boy for Life" Combs is being sued by Random House over a dispute in which the publishing company claims Puffy decided just to keep the $300k advance it paid for his memoirs -- which he never completed. I'm sure he's been busy writing his stories of J. Lo, meeting the Bushes and flamboyant awards show arrivals and parties. I think he just didn't want to overshadow the success of Dylan's Chronicles, Vol. 1.
-- On the Road again ... Earlier this month, the 120-foot long scroll of Jack Kerouac's On the Road manuscript was again unfurled -- this time at the University of Iowa Museum of Art. Fans can catch a glimpse of the yellowed and fairly tattered literary artifact in Iowa City through March 12, then the scroll will continue its four year national tour of museums and libraries.
-- Possibly destined for a paper mill near you ... the towering oak that was known as "Kesey's Tree" in Menlo Park, CA fell victim to root rot last month. What would later become a local shrine to Ken Kesey, the gnarled oak reportedly shaded the cottage where Kesey began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
-- Speaking of rot, this just in from the "please stop making horrible movies from books" department: It seems that the screenplay adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's novel The Corrections is floating around for review. And the reviews aren't good -- what a surprise. While I personally didn't care for this "must-read" novel, I'm not sure I want to someday find out that one (or all) of its characters will be played by Tom Hanks.
-- As many of you know, former president Bill Clinton won a spoken-word Grammy Sunday night for My Life. What you may not know ... in an effort not to be outdone, the rumor is that John Ashcroft may have his eye on another national office -- Poet Laureate. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
-- What are they doing in the Hemingway House? Fear of being overrun with tourists has prompted Ketchum, Idaho residents to attempt to buy and move the last home of Ernest Hemingway. In 1961, Hemingway shot and killed himself in the concrete and wood house. The Idaho Hemingway House Foundation (which boasts Tom Hanks, ahem, as a board member) hopes to open the house to the public and opposes the move.
Of course the biggest news this week was the death of playwright Arthur Miller. We'll be posting a retrospective on his impact and career on Monday, but in the meantime -- which literary news items and events are on your mind today?
Hiphop Poetry Christmas List
by Levi Asher on Sunday, December 5, 2004 10:47 pmI was recently arguing with a friend who called me a deluded fool for believing that hiphop lyricists are a significant force in today's poetry scene. I get in arguments like this a lot.
In this particular case, my friend asked me to name three examples of hiphop lyricists who can be taken seriously as poets.
I can name about eight, actually. I see that the intersections between the separate worlds of hiphop and poetry are multiplying fast, and I think anybody who cares about modern literature should get behind this trend. If your view of modern poetry does not include any part of the hiphop universe -- whether it be old school, new school, or just strange spoken word poet you caught on Def Poetry Jam on HBO -- then it's possible you are out of touch with the best stuff that's happening today. Here are three major hiphop writers who have new releases out this season:
Nas
'Street's Disciple' is the new double CD by Nas, one of the most serious and respected hiphop voices. Nas's words almost always express anger and defiance, and he explicitly urges a revolutionary agenda for the world.
Nas is often great but famously inconsistent, for which he was brutally flamed by Jay-Z: "That's a one hot album every ten year average". Even Nas's most classic album, "Illmatic", had a couple of lame songs. But Nas also turns out amazing gems on a fairly regular basis: "Hate Me Now", "Made You Look", "One Mic". I've only listened to about half of his new CD so far, and I'm happy to report that Nas is in the zone on this album, with the intensity turned up to eleven. In one track, he blasts the "coon picnic" of WB-TV style black comedy. In another, Nas's father provides the backing track by singing against a powerful Muddy Waters beat. Every cut on the album is an attempt at a serious spiritual message (okay, with a couple of party anthems thrown in).
Jay-Z
Jay-Z has been writing an autobiography since his first album, 'Reasonable Doubt'. Every CD is a new chapter. This highly driven overachiever best hit his stride with perhaps the best album in hiphop history, "Blueprint", which was released on the day four airplanes crashed in America. This album spelled out in brutally honest detail Jay-Z's own internal battles, as well as a few battles with others.
Every Jay-Z song talks about Jay-Z, aka H.O.V.A., aka Jigga, aka S. Carter, aka H to the Izzo, and every song tells the same story: a boy from the projects smartened up and conquered the world. After 'Blueprint', Jigga followed up with an almost equally strong 'Blueprint 2.x', and then suddenly announced his retirement with last year's 'Black Album'. This was a surprisingly bitter farewell statement, triumphant but largely joyless. Jay-Z was tired of winning the game, and he was taking his ball and going home.
Luckily, though, he had barely finished retiring when he started producing again. His collaboration with R. Kelly went nowhere, but his new film 'Fade to Black' is a classic. It's a concert film interspersed with scenes of Hova at work with various producers from Timbaland to Kanye West to Pharrell to Rick Rubin. Jay's songs are often about the burden of being a creative soul, and this movie shows us the vast existential void an A-List Genius faces when trying to create a new classic. We see him and his producers gazing helplessly at walls, playing one lifeless beat after another. Then suddenly something hits and Jay is at the mic. 'Fade to Black' is a great look at a creative process and a very thought-provoking film.
Eminem
Eminem is the most metafictional artist in music. His twists of character and identity would have made Luigi Pirandello and Italo Calvino proud. Is he rapping as Slim Shady, or Eminem, or Marshall Mathers, or maybe just the Lead Singer of the Band? These four identities provided the outlines for his first four albums. For his fifth, thankfully, he did not invent yet another kaleidoscopic angle on himself but instead seems to be interested in reconciling his several selves.
I haven't heard this full CD yet either, but I'm impressed with what I've heard. 'Encore' is as intense as a Nas CD, and as always Eminem does not shy away from controversy or psychological complexity.
So that's my top three. What do you think about the intersection of hiphop and literature? Do you take song lyrics of any type seriously as poetry?
In this particular case, my friend asked me to name three examples of hiphop lyricists who can be taken seriously as poets.
I can name about eight, actually. I see that the intersections between the separate worlds of hiphop and poetry are multiplying fast, and I think anybody who cares about modern literature should get behind this trend. If your view of modern poetry does not include any part of the hiphop universe -- whether it be old school, new school, or just strange spoken word poet you caught on Def Poetry Jam on HBO -- then it's possible you are out of touch with the best stuff that's happening today. Here are three major hiphop writers who have new releases out this season:
Nas
'Street's Disciple' is the new double CD by Nas, one of the most serious and respected hiphop voices. Nas's words almost always express anger and defiance, and he explicitly urges a revolutionary agenda for the world.
Nas is often great but famously inconsistent, for which he was brutally flamed by Jay-Z: "That's a one hot album every ten year average". Even Nas's most classic album, "Illmatic", had a couple of lame songs. But Nas also turns out amazing gems on a fairly regular basis: "Hate Me Now", "Made You Look", "One Mic". I've only listened to about half of his new CD so far, and I'm happy to report that Nas is in the zone on this album, with the intensity turned up to eleven. In one track, he blasts the "coon picnic" of WB-TV style black comedy. In another, Nas's father provides the backing track by singing against a powerful Muddy Waters beat. Every cut on the album is an attempt at a serious spiritual message (okay, with a couple of party anthems thrown in).
Jay-Z
Jay-Z has been writing an autobiography since his first album, 'Reasonable Doubt'. Every CD is a new chapter. This highly driven overachiever best hit his stride with perhaps the best album in hiphop history, "Blueprint", which was released on the day four airplanes crashed in America. This album spelled out in brutally honest detail Jay-Z's own internal battles, as well as a few battles with others.
Every Jay-Z song talks about Jay-Z, aka H.O.V.A., aka Jigga, aka S. Carter, aka H to the Izzo, and every song tells the same story: a boy from the projects smartened up and conquered the world. After 'Blueprint', Jigga followed up with an almost equally strong 'Blueprint 2.x', and then suddenly announced his retirement with last year's 'Black Album'. This was a surprisingly bitter farewell statement, triumphant but largely joyless. Jay-Z was tired of winning the game, and he was taking his ball and going home.
Luckily, though, he had barely finished retiring when he started producing again. His collaboration with R. Kelly went nowhere, but his new film 'Fade to Black' is a classic. It's a concert film interspersed with scenes of Hova at work with various producers from Timbaland to Kanye West to Pharrell to Rick Rubin. Jay's songs are often about the burden of being a creative soul, and this movie shows us the vast existential void an A-List Genius faces when trying to create a new classic. We see him and his producers gazing helplessly at walls, playing one lifeless beat after another. Then suddenly something hits and Jay is at the mic. 'Fade to Black' is a great look at a creative process and a very thought-provoking film.
Eminem
Eminem is the most metafictional artist in music. His twists of character and identity would have made Luigi Pirandello and Italo Calvino proud. Is he rapping as Slim Shady, or Eminem, or Marshall Mathers, or maybe just the Lead Singer of the Band? These four identities provided the outlines for his first four albums. For his fifth, thankfully, he did not invent yet another kaleidoscopic angle on himself but instead seems to be interested in reconciling his several selves.
I haven't heard this full CD yet either, but I'm impressed with what I've heard. 'Encore' is as intense as a Nas CD, and as always Eminem does not shy away from controversy or psychological complexity.
So that's my top three. What do you think about the intersection of hiphop and literature? Do you take song lyrics of any type seriously as poetry?
Can a Poet Save Hip Hop? Meet Saul Williams
by AmethystWordsmith on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 06:58 pm"I'm not a crusader for hip-hop, or for language, even though I deal with words. I deal with words to point at the spirit. You know what I'm saying? I'm more concerned about the evolution of humanity. And the music that I make, be it hip-hop or rock, and the language that I use, be it spoken or written, is aimed at invisible things that one can only connect to through prayer and meditation. and my concern is seeing that meditative state becoming reality in all of our lives so that we can live peacefully; not just with each other, and not just in some government standardized version of the Martin Luther King dream way, but in a way that is harmonious with the universe and that is beyond militarism."
It's nearly impossible to categorize Saul Williams, and what he does, with a conventional label ... which is exactly what he wants as he fights to tear down the walls and eschew all labels. Born February 29, 1972 near Albany, New York (after his mother went into labor at a James Brown concert), Saul began writing rhymes as a young child, influenced by hip hop -- particularly T La Rock?s "It's Yours." in order to keep things fresh and cover untouched territory, young Saul would consult a dictionary and use words he?d never before seen in his rhymes. Saul?s early years also provided his first acting role, playing Marc Anthony in the Shake Hands with Shakespeare Club's production of Julius Caesar. He was in third grade.
Eventually Saul moved from writing rhymes into the realm of poetry. "hip hop is a rhythmical, musical derivative of poetry, like the child of the traditional sense of poetry, poetry being the mother. I grew up with the child and after a while I was like, 'wow, you're really cool, I'd like to meet your parents.'" With poetry, Saul felt he could focus more in introspection, philosophy and metaphysics -- topics that were sadly being phased out of the ever more image conscious, braggadocio style that was overtaking hip hop. Drawing from a vast well of influences (including Kahlil Gibran, Allen Ginsberg, Rumi, Hafiz, Gil Scott-Heron and Jim Morrison) Saul began to develop his unique poetic voice blending elements of astrology, eastern mysticism, philosophy and social consciousness. He even took to incorporating hip hop?s art of sampling into his poetry. Meanwhile he graduated from Morehouse College, having majored in philosophy and acting.
Shortly after entering New York University?s graduate acting program in 1994, Saul attended his first poetry reading in Manhattan. A year and a half later he would blow audiences away at Brooklyn?s Moon Cafe when he took the stage and debuted his poem "Amethyst Rocks." From that point on Saul managed to pick up a number of gigs and take the slam scene by storm with his electrifying stage presence and poems that took listeners' souls to the furthest reaches of the solar system and returned them with adrenaline-fuelled hearts. It all paid off in April of 1996 when, shortly after the birth of his daughter Saturn, Saul won the coveted Nuyorican Poet's Cafe grand slam championship. He and the Nuyorican team would go on to place third in the team standings at the national poetry slam in Portland, Oregon. The team's road to the championship was the subject of the Paul Devlin film Slamnation.
Saul's graduation from New York University in May of 1997 allowed him more time to focus on his artistic output, which began with the film Slam, directed by Marc Levin. The film, which Saul co-wrote, centered on a young man who used poetry to break free from his given reality, and was a huge hit, winning awards at both the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. During this time Saul?s first book of poetry, The Seventh Octave, was released by Moore Black Press. By the end of 1998 Saul had penned deals with MTV Books and American Recordings, and was well on his way to hitting the market with his enlightened and enlightening language, taking the attitude that the only way to change something is to become it and do so from within.
Since then Saul has released two more books (s/he and , said the shotgun to the head.), the Rick Rubin-produced Amethyst Rock Star CD, and a scathing anti-war EP titled Not in My Name, as part of his continuing effort to expand the consciousness of the people, and show them the importance of language and art, as well as rescuing his hip hop roots from the over-commercialized self-mockery that is permeating the current market. "We're always saying 'word up' and 'word is bond'. Gang Starr's first fucking hit was 'these are the words that I manifest.' hip hop is about the power of word and when emcees forget that, they forget themselves and they become fucking caricatures of themselves, living out some dream that is not theirs. it's just buying into the American dream."
Whether you're drawn into Saul Williams' web through the intricate wordplay or mystic truths of his poetry, or through the genre-mashing sounds of his band mixing hard rock guitar riffs with heavy funk bass and turntables, one thing is certain -- you will be left thinking for yourself, which is exactly what Saul aims to do.
"We have socialized ideas of what it means to be conscious; we have a certain way that we expect these people to look and behave, certain things we expect them to say. I normally just tend to remember who Al-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz was, versus who Malcolm X was, and I try to remember the transitions like that in people's lives. A lot of people are walking around screaming about Malcolm X, but if Malcolm X was still alive, he'd be Al-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz and he'd be on some total other shit than the people who think they're practicing what they think Malcolm X would be doing?you know what I?m saying? So it's important to honour those transitions in ourselves, and I speak of the universe and the universal aspects of truth and understanding because that's what we're aiming for. That is the goal. If at the end of the day I?m just a great black poet, then something has been missed."
It's nearly impossible to categorize Saul Williams, and what he does, with a conventional label ... which is exactly what he wants as he fights to tear down the walls and eschew all labels. Born February 29, 1972 near Albany, New York (after his mother went into labor at a James Brown concert), Saul began writing rhymes as a young child, influenced by hip hop -- particularly T La Rock?s "It's Yours." in order to keep things fresh and cover untouched territory, young Saul would consult a dictionary and use words he?d never before seen in his rhymes. Saul?s early years also provided his first acting role, playing Marc Anthony in the Shake Hands with Shakespeare Club's production of Julius Caesar. He was in third grade.
Eventually Saul moved from writing rhymes into the realm of poetry. "hip hop is a rhythmical, musical derivative of poetry, like the child of the traditional sense of poetry, poetry being the mother. I grew up with the child and after a while I was like, 'wow, you're really cool, I'd like to meet your parents.'" With poetry, Saul felt he could focus more in introspection, philosophy and metaphysics -- topics that were sadly being phased out of the ever more image conscious, braggadocio style that was overtaking hip hop. Drawing from a vast well of influences (including Kahlil Gibran, Allen Ginsberg, Rumi, Hafiz, Gil Scott-Heron and Jim Morrison) Saul began to develop his unique poetic voice blending elements of astrology, eastern mysticism, philosophy and social consciousness. He even took to incorporating hip hop?s art of sampling into his poetry. Meanwhile he graduated from Morehouse College, having majored in philosophy and acting.
Shortly after entering New York University?s graduate acting program in 1994, Saul attended his first poetry reading in Manhattan. A year and a half later he would blow audiences away at Brooklyn?s Moon Cafe when he took the stage and debuted his poem "Amethyst Rocks." From that point on Saul managed to pick up a number of gigs and take the slam scene by storm with his electrifying stage presence and poems that took listeners' souls to the furthest reaches of the solar system and returned them with adrenaline-fuelled hearts. It all paid off in April of 1996 when, shortly after the birth of his daughter Saturn, Saul won the coveted Nuyorican Poet's Cafe grand slam championship. He and the Nuyorican team would go on to place third in the team standings at the national poetry slam in Portland, Oregon. The team's road to the championship was the subject of the Paul Devlin film Slamnation.
Saul's graduation from New York University in May of 1997 allowed him more time to focus on his artistic output, which began with the film Slam, directed by Marc Levin. The film, which Saul co-wrote, centered on a young man who used poetry to break free from his given reality, and was a huge hit, winning awards at both the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. During this time Saul?s first book of poetry, The Seventh Octave, was released by Moore Black Press. By the end of 1998 Saul had penned deals with MTV Books and American Recordings, and was well on his way to hitting the market with his enlightened and enlightening language, taking the attitude that the only way to change something is to become it and do so from within.
Since then Saul has released two more books (s/he and , said the shotgun to the head.), the Rick Rubin-produced Amethyst Rock Star CD, and a scathing anti-war EP titled Not in My Name, as part of his continuing effort to expand the consciousness of the people, and show them the importance of language and art, as well as rescuing his hip hop roots from the over-commercialized self-mockery that is permeating the current market. "We're always saying 'word up' and 'word is bond'. Gang Starr's first fucking hit was 'these are the words that I manifest.' hip hop is about the power of word and when emcees forget that, they forget themselves and they become fucking caricatures of themselves, living out some dream that is not theirs. it's just buying into the American dream."
Whether you're drawn into Saul Williams' web through the intricate wordplay or mystic truths of his poetry, or through the genre-mashing sounds of his band mixing hard rock guitar riffs with heavy funk bass and turntables, one thing is certain -- you will be left thinking for yourself, which is exactly what Saul aims to do.
"We have socialized ideas of what it means to be conscious; we have a certain way that we expect these people to look and behave, certain things we expect them to say. I normally just tend to remember who Al-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz was, versus who Malcolm X was, and I try to remember the transitions like that in people's lives. A lot of people are walking around screaming about Malcolm X, but if Malcolm X was still alive, he'd be Al-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz and he'd be on some total other shit than the people who think they're practicing what they think Malcolm X would be doing?you know what I?m saying? So it's important to honour those transitions in ourselves, and I speak of the universe and the universal aspects of truth and understanding because that's what we're aiming for. That is the goal. If at the end of the day I?m just a great black poet, then something has been missed."
