16 July 2010

Saul Williams - Black Stacey

For those who've never made time to look up Saul Williams, I'm currently reviving an old obsession and youtube trawling - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust was the album that turned me onto him, and as well as being produced by Trent Reznor, features an awesome cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday. I remember it being sold as an independent download, as Trent did with With Teeth, way back when. Now, I've only found it on Amazon et al, but I'm sure there's a better way to support the cause. If not, buy here. At the moment, I'm listening to the Deadbeat remix of Black Stacey, which manages to handle great humour, spiritual soapboxing and slick rhymes without dropping a beat. Basically, it's one of Saul's finest tracks redone by one of my favourite producers.

Deadbeat, aka white Canadian Scott Monteith, is one of the finest purveyors of dub as both a musical style and a philosophy. Saul Williams is a black, spoken-word poet who focusses heavily on race, politics and racial identity... Is there a message here about race, humanity and the great unification? Fuck it, it's good music.


1 comment:

  1. I love this guy. The Eastern philosophy influences in some of his lyrics are especially inspiring. And man, that track bashing 50 Cent with intelligence is SUPERB. Forget the name of it.. From the same album as Black Stacey.

    ReplyDelete