Saul Williams

His website

Life & Work

Born in Newburgh, NYC, in 1972, Saul Williams is a graduate from New York University. He has a B.A in Philosophy and a Master’s Degree in acting.
He is well known for his performances at the Brooklin Moon Café at the «Open Mic Sessions». In 1996, he became the Nuyorivan Poet Café’s Grand Slam Champion.

Saul William was also featured in the film «SLAM» and has collaborated with the Fugees, KRS-One and many others.

Besides being a rapper and a brilliant poet, Saul Williams is also a writer. He has been published in newspapers (The New York Times, Details, Esquire, Bomb Magazine and African Voice).

His first book is entitled «The Seventh Octave».

In the «Esquire», Saul Williams is described as "a dreadlocked dervish of words...the Bob Marley of American poets".

Quotations

"It's about leaming that you're not a victim, regardless of how many times you are told you're a victim." (Saul Williams)

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Coded Language

Video

Coded Language Video or here or here

Other work

Scene from Slam and another scene

Online search of his work

Lyrics

Saul Williams - Coded Language Lyrics

Whereas, breakbeats have been the missing link connecting the diasporic community to its drum woven past. Whereas the quantised drum has allowed the whirling mathematicians to calculate the ever changing distance between rock and stardom. Whereas the velocity of the spinning vinyl, cross-faded, spun backwards, and re-released at the same given moment of recorded history , yet at a different moment in time's continuum has allowed history to catch up with the present.

We do hereby declare reality unkempt by the changing standards of dialogue. Statements, such as, 'keep it real', especially when punctuating or anticipating modes of ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or physically or depicting an unchanging rule of events will hence forth be seen as retro-active and not representative of the individually determined is.

Furthermore, as determined by the collective consciousness of this state of being and the lessened distance between thought patterns and their secular manifestations, the role of men as listening receptacles is to be increased by a number no less than 70 percent of the current enlisted as vocal aggressors.

Motherfuckers better realize, now is the time to self-actualize We have found evidence that hip hops standard 85 rpm when increased by a number as least half the rate of it's standard or decreased at ¾ of it's speed may be a determining factor in heightening consciousness.

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Equate rhyme with reason, Sun with season

Our cyclical relationship to phenomenon has encouraged scholars to erase the centers of periods, thus symbolizing the non-linear character of cause and effect Reject mediocrity!

Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which as been given for you to understand. The current standard is the equivalent of an adolescent restricted to the diet of an infant. The rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional and deformative symptoms and could not properly mature on a diet of apple sauce and crushed pears Light years are interchangeable with years of living in darkness. The role of darkness is not to be seen as, or equated with, Ignorance, but

with the unknown, and the mysteries of the unseen.

Thus, in the name of: ROBESON, GOD'S SON, HURSTON, AHKENATON, HATHSHEPUT, BLACKFOOT, HELEN, LENNON, KHALO, KALI, THE THREE MARIAS, TARA, LILITHE, LOURDE, WHITMAN, BALDWIN, GINSBERG, KAUFMAN, LUMUMBA, GHANDI, GIBRAN, SHABAZZ, SIDDHARTHA, MEDUSA, GUEVARA, GUERDJIEFF, RAND, WRIGHT, BANNEKER, TUBMAN, HAMER, HOLIDAY, DAVIS, COLTRANE, MORRISON, JOPLIN, DUBOIS, CLARKE, SHAKESPEARE, RACHMNINOV, ELLINGTON, CARTER, GAYE, HATHOWAY, HENDRIX, KUTL, DICKERSON, RIPPERTON, MARY, ISIS, THERESA, PLATH, RUMI, FELLINI, MICHAUX, NOSTRADAMUS, NEFERTITI, LA ROCK, SHIVA, GANESHA, YEMAJA, OSHUN, OBATALA, OGUN, KENNEDY, KING, FOUR LITTLE GIRLS, HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI, KELLER, BIKO, PERONE, MARLEY, COSBY, SHAKUR, THOSE STILL AFLAMED, AND THE COUNTLESS UNNAMED

We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter. We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun. We are not afraid of the darkness, we trust that the moon shall guide us. We are determining the future at this very moment. We now know that the heart is the philosophers' stone Our music is our alchemy We stand as the manifested equivalent of 3 buckets of water and a hand full of minerals, thus realizing that those very buckets turned upside down supply the percussion factor of forever. If you must count to keep the beat then count. Find you mantra and awaken your subconscious. Curve you circles counterclockwise Use your cipher to decipher, Coded Language, man made laws. Climb waterfalls and trees, commune with nature, snakes and bees. Let your children name themselves and claim themselves as the new day for today we are determined to be the channelers of these changing frequencies into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama, photography, carpentry, crafts, love, and love. We enlist every instrument: Acoustic, electronic. Every so-called race, gender, and sexual preference. Every per-son as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility to uplift the consciousness of the entire f**king World. Any utterance will be un-aimed, will be disclaimed - two rappers slain Any utterance will be un-aimed, will be disclaimed - two rappers slain

The Pledge of Resistance

free Mp3 download: http://www.notinournamemusic.com/mp3/01_Pledge_of_Resistance(original).mp3

Lyrics

We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government,
in our names

Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions
of blood for oil

Not in our name
will you invade countries
bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil

Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples
or countries to be deemed evil

Not by our will
and Not in our name

We pledge resistance

We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice,
freedom and peace

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.

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