Monday, April 11, 2005
Has Spoken Word's Time Arrived?
I've said it before - I've never really been a fan of spoken word or poetry slams. I've been to a few events in my life but that same pretentious, melodramatic cadence EVERY poet seems to use for some reason gets on my fccking nerves.
As much as I could ever get into it was dabbling in some of the work by old school punk poet John Cooper Clark, British Rasta laureate from the same era Linton Kwesi Johnson, Chuck D on Fear of A Black Planet (listen to it again, he's doing more spoken word than real, straight-up rapping which is why, depsite what Christgau thinks, It Takes A Nation... is still the better album by far.) and Saul Williams debut album Amethyst Rockstar.
Williams is back again and doesn't disappoint with his new self-titled album. On paper this is something that should be in my sell pile by now between the spoken word element and a lot of songs whose musical tracks are verging on noise frankly, but there's something compelling about his voice and what he's saying that's, to employ on overused hip hop term, "the Truth." Don't take my word for it though. Read on, then listen up....
From his bio:
"Saul Williams has defined and redefined poetry as an accessible, living art form. His groundbreaking work as a writer and actor in the critically acclaimed film, Slam, garnered him a substantial amount of notoriety and placed him in the limelight as the figurehead for a new generation of poets, spoken word artists and actors. He is the author of three collections of poetry: , said the shotgun to the head., She and The Seventh Octave. His writings appear in several anthologies and periodicals such as Catch the Fire and The New York Times respectively.
The past decade has seen Saul Williams emerge as one of the world's most recognized poets as well as a rising actor and a highly acclaimed musician. He released 2001's Amethyst Rockstar, which was co-produced by Rick Rubin and won him critical acclaim all over the world leading to him touring with Blackalicious, Cursive and The Mars Volta.
His latest album, simply titled Saul Williams. In Saul's own words, "the tracks range from politics to relationships and the politics of relationships. What I ended up with was something that captured the authoritative cool of hip- hop, the playful angst of rock and roll, the raw emotional torment of emo (and, my favorite, "screamo"), and the fuck offness of punk."
Click and listen:
– Saul Williams official website.
– “Black Stacey (Deadbeats Remix)”: real | wma
– “List of Demands (Kill Memory Crash Remix)”: real | wma
– “List of Demands” (Remix) Video: wma hi | real video hi | real video lo
– “List of Demands” Video: Quicktime | wma
Listen to the Saul Williams album:
1. Talk To Strangers real | wma
2. Grippo real | wma
3. Telegram real | wma
4. Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare) real | wma
5. List Of Demands (Reparations) real | wma
6. African Student Movement real | wma
7. Black Stacey real | wma
8. PG real | wma
9. Surrender (A Second To Think) real | wma
10. Control Freak real | wma
11. Seaweed real | wma
12. Notice Of Eviction real | wma
Duke is also on tour here and in Europe now through July. There's way too many dates to list here but I'm sure they're on his website somewhere.
** Win a copy of Saul's new album by emailing me (subject line: "Saul Williams contest"). Contest will end 11:59:59pm on April 18th. Winner will be selcted at random. Prizing courtesy Cornerstone Promotion.
Related: Spoken word continues to blow up with the Ill List DVD....
"Spoken word is rapidly growing into one of underground culture’s hottest scenes. Drawing on the self-affirming attitude and political energy of hip-hop culture; spoken word artists unleash their rhymes acapella. With the swagger of hip-hop and the razor sharp observational wit of stand-up comics, spoken word poets draw in their audience with pure lyrical fire.
For the first time the raw energy of spoken word performances is captured on film and presented on DVD. Enter the ILL List….
The ILL List is an invitational only poetry slam that features a dozen nationally renowned performance poets/spoken word artists, many of whom are regional and national poetry slam champions who have appeared on Russell Simmon's HBO Def Poetry Jam. The event is modelled after the original poetry slam invented in Chicago by Marc Smith with a three round format, random judges, and traditional rules of time limits, no props and original content."
For more:
- Watch the DVD trailer.
- Click here for info on the DVD from the official WordGroove Studios website.
