Saul Williams | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Saul Stacey Williams |
Born | Newburgh, New York, U.S. | February 29, 1972
Genres | |
Occupations |
|
Instruments |
|
Labels | |
Website | saulwilliams |
Education | Morehouse College (BA) New York University (MFA) |
Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film Slam and the 2013 jukebox musical Holler If Ya Hear Me.
Saul Stacey Williams was born in Newburgh, New York, on February 29, 1972, [3] the youngest of three children. He attended Newburgh Free Academy, where he wrote his song "Black Stacey". He graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in acting and philosophy, then moved to New York City, where he earned an MFA in acting from New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts. [4] [5] While at New York University, he became part of the New York café poetry scene. He also lived in Brazil as an exchange student from 1988 to 1989.
By 1995, Williams had become an open mic poet. In 1996, he won the title of Nuyorican Poets Cafe's Grand Slam Champion. The documentary film SlamNation follows Williams and the other members of the 1996 Nuyorican Poets Slam team (Beau Sia, muMs da Schemer, and Jessica Care Moore) as they compete in the 1996 National Poetry Slam held in Portland, Oregon. The following year, Williams landed the lead role in the 1998 feature film Slam . Williams featured as both a writer and actor in the film, [6] which would win both the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera D'Or (Golden Camera). [7]
Around 1998, Williams was also breaking into music. He had performed with such artists as Nas, The Fugees, Christian Alvarez, Blackalicious, Erykah Badu, KRS-One, Zack De La Rocha, De La Soul, Buckethead, and DJ Krust, as well as poets Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez. After releasing a string of EPs, he released the LP Amethyst Rock Star with producer Rick Rubin in 2001. In September 2004, he released his self-titled album to much acclaim. He played several shows supporting Nine Inch Nails on their European tour in summer 2005, and has also supported The Mars Volta. Williams was invited to the Lollapalooza music festival around that time, and the Chicago stage allowed Williams to attract a wider audience. He appeared on the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero , and supported the group on their 2006 tour of North America. On the tour, Williams announced that Trent Reznor would co-produce his next album. [8]
This collaboration resulted in 2007's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! . The album was available only from its website until a physical CD was issued, featuring new tracks and extended album artwork. [9] The first 100,000 customers on the website had the option to download a free lower-quality audio version of the album. The other option was for users to pay $5 to support the artist directly and be given the choice of downloading the higher-quality MP3 version or the lossless FLAC version. The material was produced by Trent Reznor and mixed by Alan Moulder. It was Reznor who said, after his own recent dealings with record labels, that they should release it independently and directly to the audience. [10]
In early 2008, a Nike Sparq Training commercial featured Williams' song "List of Demands (Reparations)". In a November 2008 interview with Wired.com, Williams talked about his forthcoming projects: "There's one album that I'm waist-deep into. I'm aiming to finish it up next month. Trent wants to work on a sequel for Niggy that I think would be cool, and I also have an album and new songs demoed at home that I'm ready to go into the studio and lay down. It’s a complete reflection of how I feel in this country; it's a very transformative time." [11]
Williams' fourth album, Volcanic Sunlight , was released on November 11, 2011. Williams showcased the album at London's Hoxton Bar Kitchen on January 26, 2011. Livemusic interviewed Williams on the evening and made a subsequent film, produced by artist Alex Templeton-Ward. When Williams was asked what the point of poetry was, he said: "I'm making this up, I have no idea but here we go. I think that it would be to express, to share, to relieve, to explore. For me, poetry offers some what of a cathartic experience. I am able to move through emotions and emotional experience particularly, you know, break-ups, difficulties in all the things that I may face, whether that is with an industry or a loved one or whomever, there needs to be an infiltration process, like you have a window open over there. That is the purpose of poetry: it is the window that opens, that allows some air in, some other insight, some other possibility so we can explore all that we feel, all that we think but with the space to see more than what we know, because there is so much more than we know. If I didn't open myself to the possibilities of the unknown, then I would be lost."
Williams' fifth album, MartyrLoserKing , was released on January 29, 2016. The first single released from the album was "Burundi", a collaboration with Emily Kokal of Warpaint. [12]
In March 2018, The Kills released their cover of Williams' "List of Demands (Reparations)" and Williams opened for The Kills' sold-out performance at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles on August 13, 2018.
As a writer, Williams has been published in The New York Times , Esquire , Bomb Magazine , and African Voices, as well as releasing four collections of poetry. As a poet and musician, Williams has toured and lectured across the world, appearing at many universities and colleges. In his interview in the book Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, Williams explained why he creates within so many genres: "It's not that I balance those arts out, all the different arts balance me out. So, that there is a certain type of emotion that is more easily accessible through music than poetry... some things are meant to be written, some are meant to be sung, some things are meant to be hummed, some things are made to be yelled, and so that's just how life works." [13]
In January 2009, he released NGH WHT – The Dead Emcee Scrolls with The Arditti Quartet, a reading of his 2006 poetry book of the same name. This collaboration with Thomas Kessler (who also set Williams' spoken-word track ",said the shotgun to the head" to music) was released with two payment options: listeners could download chapters 18 to 22 of the 27-minute composition in MP3 format for free, or could download the entire 33-chapter composition in lossless AIFF format for $6, along with the isolated vocal and quartet multitracks. The entire paid download totalled in size at 563 megabytes. [14] Williams contributed to two tracks on the 2011 album Baba Love by Arthur H. [15]
Williams starred in Slam (1998) and Today (2012). On stage, he was chosen for the lead role in Holler If Ya Hear Me , a Broadway musical featuring music by Tupac Shakur. Though it features Shakur's music, the musical is not about his life. It is an original script written by Todd Kreidler. Rolling Stone described the production as "the first hip-hop jukebox musical in Broadway history". [16] The show opened on June 19, 2014. [17] Williams' role in the musical landed him an interview on The Colbert Report , where he spoke about his career and performed a poem entitled "Amethyst Rocks". [18]
He received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actor at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, for his performance in the film Akilla's Escape . [19]
In 2021, Neptune Frost, which Williams wrote and co-directed with Anisia Uzeyman, premiered in Cannes at Directors' Fortnight. [20] The film was supported by a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2018. [21]
Williams is a vegan. [22] He is a vocal critic of the War on Terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [23] Among his better-known works are the anti-war anthems "Not in My Name" and "Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)". In 2011, he added his name to Occupy Musicians, supporting the worldwide Occupy movement against income inequality. [24] He identifies as queer. [25]
Williams and Marcia Jones, a visual artist and art professor, [26] began their relationship in 1995 as collaborative artists on the Brooklyn performance art and spoken word poetry circuit. Their daughter, Saturn, was born in 1996. [27] A collection of poems by Williams entitled S/HE is a series of reflections on the demise of his relationship with Jones. [28] Jones created the cover artwork for The Seventh Octave, images throughout S/HE in response to Williams, and set-designed his 2001 album Amethyst Rock Star . Saturn performed with her father on his 2008 concert tour. [29] [30] Williams also has a son named Xuly with renowned choreographer Fatima Robinson. [31] [32]
On February 29, 2008 (his 36th birthday), Williams married actress Persia White after a five-year relationship. They met when he made a guest appearance on the series Girlfriends . [33] [34] On January 17, 2009, White announced via her Myspace blog that she and Williams were no longer together. [35] He is now married to actress Anisia Uzeyman. [36] He lived in Paris for four years but now resides in Los Angeles. [37]
Title | Year | Other performer(s) | Album |
---|---|---|---|
"Coded Language" | 1999 | Krust | Coded Language |
"Monkey Theme" | 2000 | The Infesticons | Gun Hill Road |
"Release" | 2002 | Blackalicious, Zack de la Rocha, Lyrics Born, Sela Kerr | Blazing Arrow |
"Playing House" | Tre Hardson | Liberation | |
"Sent from Sandy Shores" | 2003 | Adventure Time | Dreams of Water Themes |
"Time (Jungle)" (Temple of Soul Mix) | Wax Poetic | Nublu Sessions | |
"Freedom" | 2004 | Karl Denson's Tiny Universe | — |
"Three Fingers" | 2005 | Buckethead & Friends | Enter the Chicken |
"Sea Lion" (Extended version) | Sage Francis, Will Oldham, Alias | — | |
"Lyrical Gunplay" | 2006 | Thavius Beck | Thru |
"Mr. Nichols" | Coldcut | Sound Mirrors | |
"April Showers, April Tears" | Stuart Davis | — | |
"Said the Shotgun to the Head" | Thomas Kessler | Thomas Kessler | |
"Survivalism" (backing vocals) | 2007 | Nine Inch Nails | Year Zero |
"Me, I'm Not" (backing vocals) | |||
"Gunshots by Computer" | Year Zero Remixed | ||
"Survivalism" | |||
"Easter" | 2009 | Stuart Davis | Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll: Songs from the TV Series |
"U Can Do It" | 2010 | Maeckes | Kids |
"Dance or Die" | Janelle Monáe | The ArchAndroid | |
"Black Intro" | Vic Mensa | Straight Up | |
"Le Paradis II Est Chinois" | 2011 | Arthur H | Baba Love |
"Basquiat" | |||
"Believe" | Ayọ | Billie-Eve | |
"Rendez-Nous L'Argent" | 2014 | Nevche | Rétroviseur |
"Money God" | 2015 | Haleek Maul | Prince Midas |
"Imperial Sound" | 2016 | Torae | Entitled |
"The Virus" | A Tribe Called Red, Chippewa Travellers | We Are the Halluci Nation | |
"Wings" | 2017 | Vic Mensa, Pharrell Williams | The Autobiography |
"Faster" | 2017 | Rone | Mirapolis |
"Ancestral Recall" | 2019 | Christian Scott | Ancestral Recall |
"Mental" | 2022 | Denzel Curry, Bridget Perez | Melt My Eyez See Your Future |
"The Entrance" | Niariu | Story of a Sad Mermaid |
A slam poetry is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery.
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross. Reznor was previously the only permanent member of the band until Reznor made Ross an official member in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After disagreeing with TVT about how to promote the album, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.
Michael Trent Reznor is an American musician. He came to prominence as the founder, lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member.
Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
The Fragile is the third studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as a double album by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on September 21, 1999. It was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and the English producer Alan Moulder, a longtime Reznor collaborator. It was recorded throughout 1997 to 1999 in New Orleans.
Eric Adam Avery is an American musician. He is best known as the founding bass guitarist and co-songwriter of the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, with whom he has recorded two studio albums. From 2005 to 2022, Avery was the bassist for Garbage, which he joined as sideman and with whom he recorded three studio albums.
Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross is an English musician, composer, record producer, and audio engineer. He is best known for his work with American musician Trent Reznor, with whom he first worked on the musical project Tapeworm in 2002. He began working with Reznor's band Nine Inch Nails in 2005 as a programmer and producer, then joined as a musician and became the only official member of the band other than Reznor in 2016.
Randolph Isaiah "Ikey" Owens was an American keyboardist known for his work with The Mars Volta, Jack White and an array of bands from the Long Beach music scene.
"Hurt" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from its 1994 studio album The Downward Spiral—where it is the closing song on the album—written by Trent Reznor. It was subsequently released on April 17, 1995, as a promotional single from the album, wherein it was issued straight to radio. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Song in 1996. In 2020, Kerrang and Billboard ranked the song number two and number three, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Nine Inch Nails songs.
Beaufort Benjamin Sia is an American slam poet.
Year Zero is the fifth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Interscope Records on April 17, 2007. Conceived while touring in support of the band's previous album, With Teeth (2005), the album was recorded in late 2006. It was produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and was the band's first studio album since 1994's The Downward Spiral that was not co-produced by long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. It was the band's last album for Interscope, following Reznor's departure the same year due to a dispute regarding overseas pricing.
"Survivalism" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from its fifth studio album, Year Zero (2007). It was released as the album's lead single. The single was released digitally on the iTunes Store on March 13, 2007, and the CD and vinyl singles were released internationally on April 2, 2007.
Thavius Beck is an American record producer and rapper. He has been a member of Global Phlowtations and Lab Waste. He has also put out solo releases under the moniker Adlib. He is a certified trainer of Ableton Live.
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the third solo studio album by Saul Williams. It was released in 2007. It peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as number 89 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album is entirely produced by Trent Reznor. The title of the album is a reference to David Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Ghosts I–IV is the sixth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by The Null Corporation on March 2, 2008. It was the band's first independent release following their split from longtime label Interscope Records in 2007. The production team included Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, studio collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, and contributions from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew, and Brian Viglione.
Gingger Shankar is an American singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. She has scored several films, including Circumstance.
Michael David Garson is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Duran Duran, Free Flight, The Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur and The Pretty Reckless.
The Social Network is the score album for David Fincher's 2010 film of the same name, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It was released on September 28, 2010, through The Null Corporation. On September 17, a five-track sampler was also made available for free. The score bears a similar sound to the previous Reznor/Ross 2008 collaboration, Ghosts I–IV, and even features two slightly reworked tracks from Ghosts; the track "Magnetic" and "A Familiar Taste".
Today is a 2012 French-Senegalese film directed by Alain Gomis. The film competed in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012.
Hesitation Marks is the eighth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on August 30, 2013, by The Null Corporation and distributed by Columbia Records in the United States and Polydor Records elsewhere. It was the band's first release in five years, following The Slip (2008), as well as their only release on Columbia. Like previous albums, the album was produced by frontman Trent Reznor alongside longtime collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. To date, this is the most recent Nine Inch Nails album to be co-produced by Moulder.