Saul Williams is a rapper like David Bowie was a singer.
MartyrLoserKing is the follow up to William's accessibly dark and dancey Volcanic Sunlight, and it's his heaviest and most intricate release since 2007's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust.
There's still a lot of anger in Williams' words and music, specifically on tracks like 'Roach Eggs' and 'Down For Some Ignorance', but it's not thrown, blindly, at the listener; he won't be dismissed as hysterical, his arguments are pertinent and well stated.
Standouts include 'Ashes', one of Williams' darkest works to date, the juxtaposition within 'The Bear/Coltan As Cotton', the first half with its soaring openness, the second with its high speed, bladed slam poetry, the pulsing, hypnotic 'Horn of a Clock-Bike', the revolution of 'Burundi' (featuring Emily Kokal of Warpaint), and the oddly-Radiohead feel of "No Different", which feels like a sorrowful prayer.
If all rappers were brilliant, impassioned, and recondite, then Saul Williams wouldn't stand out. As it stands, he remains one of the most thoughtful and intelligent artists out there and continues to evolve the arts of rap, hip hop, and poetry, all at the same time.
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