i laced my shoes with sorrow and walked a weary road dead end streets don't come undone with double knots wing tipped shoes that walk on air through vacant lots
Saul WilliamsRead
Why shouldn't rap be esoteric, able to take in current events, history and criticism? I guess it's this old idea of containment - that rappers, because they're black, can't and shouldn't aspire to look outside the ghetto for influence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that rap music should encompass a broad range of influences, challenging the limitations imposed on it by societal expectations.
Saul Williams asserts that rap should not be confined to a narrow set of themes or experiences, particularly those tied to the ghetto. Instead, he believes that rappers, regardless of their background, should draw inspiration from a wide array of sources, including current events, history, and criticism. This perspective challenges the notion that black artists should limit their aspirations and creativity based solely on their heritage or environment.
Themes
RapMusicInfluenceCreativityArtistic Expression
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about hip-hop culture, I used this quote to illustrate the importance of diverse influences in creative expression.
More from Saul Williams
All quotes →There is no music more powerful than hip-hop. No other music so purely demands an instant affirmative on such a global scale. When the beat drops, people nod their heads, “yes,” in the same way that they would in conversation with a loved one, a parent, professor, or minister.
Saul WilliamsRead
Have you ever lost yourself in a kiss? I mean pure psychedelic inebriation. Not just lustful petting but transcendental metamorphosis when you became aware that the greatness of this being was breathing into you. Licking the sides and corners of your mouth, like sealing a thousand fleshy envelopes filled with the essence of your passionate being and then opened by the same mouth and delivered back to you, over and over again - the first kiss of the rest of your life.
Saul WilliamsRead
We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun. We are not afraid of the darkness. We trust that the moon shall guide us. We are determining the future at this very moment. We know that the heart is the philosopher's stone. Our music is our alchemy.
Saul WilliamsRead
A lie preserved in stained glass doesn't make it more true.
Saul WilliamsRead
I surrendered my beliefs and found myself at the tree of life injecting my story into the veins of leaves only to find that stories like forests are subject to seasons
Saul WilliamsRead
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