Saul Williams

Born in Newburgh, New York, on February 29, 1972, Saul Williams is an American poet, rapper, author, actor and director whose career spans literature, music and performance. He made a name for himself in the late 1990s on the New York spoken word scene, before publishing his first collections, The Seventh Octave (1998), Said the Shotgun to the Head (2003) and The Dead Emcee Scrolls (2006), alongside a theatrical and film career that culminated in his starring role in the film Slam (1998), winner of the Caméra d'or at Cannes. On the musical front, he released Amethyst Rock Star (2001), a debut album produced in part by Rick Rubin, followed by the eponymous Saul Williams (2004), marked by a blend of hip-hop, electro and industrial rock. This was followed by The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! (2007), distributed directly online with the participation of Trent Reznor, Volcanic Sunlight (2011), more funk and pop, then MartyrLoserKing (2016) and Encrypted & Vulnerable (2019), two parts of a multimedia project combining music, poetry and political reflection on the digital age. He is simultaneously developing his writing work with the collection US(a.) (2015), regularly intervening in documentary and collaborative projects, composing for the stage and directing in 2022 the musical and political film Neptune Frost, co-directed with his wife, actress Anisia Uzeyman. The soundtrack, released under the title Unanimous Goldmine, was followed by a collaboration with the band Carlos Niño & Friends for a live recording released in 2025, Saul Williams Meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, mixing engaged poetry, spiritual jazz, improvisation and electro-acoustic creation.