Saul Williams | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Williams in 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Saul Stacey Williams (1972-02-29)February 29, 1972 (age 53) Newburgh, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Morehouse College(BA) New York University(MFA) |
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| Website | saulwilliams |
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 andalternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent filmSlam and the 2013 jukebox musicalHoller If Ya Hear Me. His albumSaul Williams Meets Carlos Niño & Friends At Treepeople was nominated in theBest Spoken Word Poetry Album category at the68th Annual Grammy Awards.[3]
Saul Stacey Williams was born inNewburgh, New York, on February 29, 1972,[4] the youngest of three children. He attendedNewburgh Free Academy, where he wrote his song "Black Stacey". He graduated fromMorehouse College with aBA in acting and philosophy, then moved to New York City, where he earned anMFA in acting fromNew York University'sGraduate Acting Program at theTisch School of the Arts.[5][6] While at New York University, he became part of the New York café poetry scene. He also lived inBrazil as anexchange student from 1988 to 1989.
By 1995, Williams had become an open mic poet. In 1996, he won the title ofNuyorican Poets Cafe'sGrand Slam Champion. The documentary filmSlamNation follows Williams and the other members of the 1996 Nuyorican Poets Slam team (Beau Sia,muMs da Schemer, andJessica Care Moore) as they compete in the 1996National Poetry Slam held inPortland, Oregon. The following year, Williams landed the lead role in the 1998 feature filmSlam. Williams featured as both a writer and actor in the film,[7] which would win both theSundance Festival Grand Jury Prize and theCannes Camera D'Or (Golden Camera).[8]
Around 1998, Williams was also breaking into music. He had performed with such artists asNas,The Fugees,Blackalicious,Erykah Badu,KRS-One,Zack De La Rocha,De La Soul,Buckethead, andDJ Krust, as well as poetsAllen Ginsberg andSonia Sanchez. After releasing a string of EPs, he released theLPAmethyst Rock Star with producerRick Rubin in 2001. In September 2004, he releasedhis self-titled album to much acclaim. He played several shows supportingNine Inch Nails on their European tour in summer 2005, and has also supportedThe Mars Volta. Williams was invited to theLollapalooza music festival around that time, and the Chicago stage allowed Williams to attract a wider audience. He appeared on the Nine Inch Nails albumYear Zero, and supported the group on their 2006 tour of North America. On the tour, Williams announced thatTrent Reznor would co-produce his next album.[9]
This collaboration resulted in 2007'sThe 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.[10] 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 losslessFLAC version. The material was produced byTrent Reznor and mixed byAlan 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.[11]
In early 2008, aNike Sparq Training commercial featured Williams' song "List of Demands (Reparations)". In a November 2008 interview withWired.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 forNiggy 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."[12]
Williams' fourth album,Volcanic Sunlight, was released on November 11, 2011. Williams showcased the album at London'sHoxton Bar Kitchen on January 26, 2011. Livemusic interviewed Williams on the evening and made a subsequent film, produced by artistAlex 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.[13]
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 inThe New York Times,Esquire,Bomb Magazine, andAfrican 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 bookWords 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."[14]
In January 2009, he releasedNGH 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 losslessAIFF format for $6, along with the isolated vocal and quartet multitracks. The entire paid download totalled in size at 563megabytes.[15] Williams contributed to two tracks on the 2011 albumBaba Love byArthur H.[16]
Williams starred inSlam (1998) andToday (2012). On stage, he was chosen for the lead role inHoller If Ya Hear Me, aBroadway musical featuring music byTupac 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".[17] The show opened on June 19, 2014.[18] Williams' role in the musical landed him an interview onThe Colbert Report, where he spoke about his career and performed a poem entitled "Amethyst Rocks".[19]
He received aCanadian Screen Award nomination forBest Actor at the9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, for his performance in the filmAkilla's Escape.[20]
In 2025 he had a role as a preacher inRyan Coogler's horror filmSinners.[21]
In 2021,Neptune Frost, which Williams wrote and co-directed withAnisia Uzeyman, premiered in Cannes atDirectors' Fortnight.[22] The film was supported by a successfulKickstarter campaign in 2018.[23]
Williams is avegan.[24] He is a vocal critic of thewar on terrorism and the wars inIraq andAfghanistan.[25] 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 worldwideOccupy movement against income inequality.[26] He identifies asqueer.[27]
Williams andMarcia Jones, a visual artist and art professor,[28] began a relationship in 1995 as collaborative artists on theBrooklyn performance art and spoken word poetry circuit. A collection of poems by Williams entitledS/HE is a series of reflections on the demise of his relationship with Jones.[29] Jones created the cover artwork forThe Seventh Octave, images throughoutS/HE in response to Williams, and set-designed his 2001 albumAmethyst Rock Star.[30][31]
Williams has a son with choreographerFatima Robinson.[32][33]
On February 29, 2008 (his 36th birthday), Williams married actressPersia White after a five-year relationship. They met when he made a guest appearance on the seriesGirlfriends.[34][35] On January 17, 2009, White announced via herMyspace blog that she and Williams were no longer together.[36]
He is married to actressAnisia Uzeyman.[37] He lived inParis for four years but now resides inLos Angeles.[38]
| 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 | N/a |
| "Three Fingers" | 2005 | Buckethead & Friends | Enter the Chicken |
| "Sea Lion" (Extended version) | Sage Francis,Will Oldham, Alias | N/a | |
| "Lyrical Gunplay" | 2006 | Thavius Beck | Thru |
| "Mr. Nichols" | Coldcut | Sound Mirrors | |
| "April Showers, April Tears" | Stuart Davis | N/a | |
| "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 | |
| "Under Rats" | 2025 | Deerhoof | Noble and Godlike in Ruin |
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