Saul Williams - Explain My Heart
I have a lot of music/EP related stuff I’m looking forward to getting to posting over the next week or so, but I really wanted to stick this video up.
Saul Williams is probably amongst my favourite artists to come around in the past ten or so years. He has one of those careers that is not limited by narrow definitions of what an artist should be, and like another long-standing influence of mine, his career spans multiple mediums, from poetry to music to the occasional acting role.
On every level, Saul’s work challenges both expectations and rigidities, not only within concepts like hip-hop and music generally, but those of art, love, creativity, race, and all with an emphasis on the meaning of living an artistic life fearlessly and without constraints. And doing so for it’s own sake.
I’ve had the opportunity to see Saul in concert a couple of times in the past six years or so, and the first of those shows in particular will forever stand out in my mind as one of the most memorable concerts I’ve ever been to. Because it wasn’t just a ‘great show’, though it certainly was that as well, but it was like being struck by a powerful artistic force; and not one that was simply performing for an audience, but was actively embracing it, taking it into it’s arms to share in its energy firsthand. It was inspiring to say the least, and I came away from that feeling like I took a little bit of it away with me, and things I wanted to do suddenly felt more possible somehow, and I, more hopeful about them, even though at that point I had no idea what form they would take or how to go about it. It was like the show recognized a chord already resounding somewhere in my heart, and amplified it, the sustain stretching out further and more audibly than it had previously.
The man is a shaman in the truest sense. Much respect.
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