Richardine Bartee
Saul Williams said so, so you are.
Uncooked and in-your-face tactics seem to be the only way of proposition people in this new society. Many of us aren’t moved by much anymore. We’ve seen, felt, smelled, heard and experienced just about everything there is, but there is something exceptional, simple, archaic yet contemporary about the way Saul Williams packages his messages. Perhaps, that is what makes him perennial.
In a nightmarish lullaby sonic, kind of like playing A Perfect Circle’s “Counting Bodies Like Sheep” for a toddler to go to bed, the Newburgh, New York-native artist sweeps the world’s evils from under the figurative rug and pours it onto our pillowcases. Possibly, hoping for us to wake up in the midst of it in morning to face it.
Specifically, his tongue-in-cheek modus operandi shells out what we choose to ignore, what’s accepted, and why all of it is hurting us as a human race in the end. The dreamy, solitude Rafe Scobey-Thal / Anisia Uzeyman-direction features hard-to-watch clips that oddly. Check it out below.
Last year, I interviewed Saul Williams in preparation for this album. At the time, he wasn’t sure when the “MartyrLoserKing” album — whose title is a play on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s name — was going to come out, but from what I regather, he shared several gems with me. My article wasn’t picked up by the outlets I pitched it to, but I plan to publish it on my website because it’s that good. Stay tuned for that moment, more updates about Saul’s album, and purchase the album via this link.
Saul Williams is currently on tour. If you have some extra money after the bills are paid, and the time to attend one of his international dates, pull the trigger and do it.
Tour Dates:
Mar 23 – The Hague, Netherlands – Paard Van Troje
Mar 24 – Sally-Lez-Lannoy, France – Salle Clovis Defrenne
Mar 25 – Niort, France – Le Camji
Mar 26 – St Nazaire, France – Le Vip
Mar 27 – Paris, France – La Manufacture 111
Apr 9 – Iowa City, IA – Mission Creek Festival
Apr 15 – Chicago, IL – Poetry & The Rebranding of Social Movements @ The Revival (Sold Out)
Apr 16 – Chicago, IL – Poetry & The Rebranding of Social Movements @ The Revival
Jun 4 – Paris, France – Afropunk Fest Paris 2016
Jun 12 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
