Crossing over from acclaimed poet and spoken word artist to the increasingly close-minded music industry seems an impossible task. It helps when you’re incredibly talented and have the brass to put together one of the year’s best and most challenging records. Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust is a forward-thinking mash up of raw punk energy, future sounds and hip-hop soul. Doing what very few artists in history have been able to do, Saul Williams has put together a political record that doesn’t sacrifice artfulness or energy in favor of a “message.” Sounding like the half-mad ghost of long dead Nintendos or the stomp of thousands of angry laptops, Niggy Tardust is a genre-twisting beast. ANTIGRAVITY talked to Williams about the connection between punk and rap, the concepts behind his new record and making music without history.
