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Written by Jon Regan
Tuesday, September 21st, 2004 at 6:26 pm 
Category: Music
Saul Williams - Saul WilliamsSaul has once again proved to be a prolific artist; providing our ears with sonic poetry about the ongoing corruption within the U.S. government and the inherent blinging of the youth. A lot has happened to Saul Williams since he gave an incredible performance in the groundbreaking movie “Slam” way back in 1998. This time around, Saul has once again proved to be a prolific artist; providing our ears with sonic poetry about the ongoing corruption within the U.S. government and the inherent blinging of the youth. The opening track “Talk to Strangers” pulls no punches as Saul let’s us know his opinion about the T.V. screen; “But that square box don’t represent the sphere that we live in. The earth is not a flat screen. I ain’t trying to fit in.”Here is a man frustrated with the social boundaries of the good ‘ol USA. As the LP’s second track,”Grippo”, speaks about;”White boys listen to white boys, black boys listen to black boys. No one listens to no one”. Besides his gift of gab, Saul displays his songwriting talent by incorporating piano chords, guitar leads, distorted melodies and gritty drum tracks. Saul has created a fluid LP thick with dark, yet spookily positive, energies amidst a backdrop constructed within a depressed world.After listening to this LP in its entirety, it becomes painfully clear that Saul Williams is on a mission to educate the masses without condescension. This has never been an easy task. KRS-One succeeded but it hurt our ears after a while. Gil Scott Heron also tried to make it happen, but fell to the needle like so many late 60′s/early 70′s musicians. So what is Saul Williams doing differently?For starters, he gets giant punk rock points for using sick-as samples like the Bad Brains’ “Supertouch” in track #3′s “telegram”. Another reason why Mr. Williams’ approach is different from his predecessors; he’s not conforming to a niche audience. It’s almost as if he doesn’t give a shit who buys his music. That’s wicked cool. Not enough artists have the balls to pull that off.

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