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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2010)
10 street roots Jan. 22. 2010 Of gatekeepers and street sweepers Poet, author, artist, agitator Saul Williams lays his alter ego to rest BY HELEN KIERNAN STREET N E W S SERVICE t the Double Door, the crowd screams as NiggyTafdust, a starman adorned with blue feathers, a “frohawk,” and glittery paint streaming down his face like two rivers, climbs on top of the speakers. “When'I say Niggy, you say nothing,” he commands. “’Niggy/” “Nothing!” the audience responds. “S hutnp.” Niggy Tardust is an alter ego of poet, actor, and hip-hop musician Saul Williams. After receiving his bachelor’s^ degree in acting and philosophy from Morehouse P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F C O L L E E N C A T A N IA College in Atlanta, he moved to New York City and earned his m aster’s in acting at New York University. It was there that he album as expressing a more fun, even silly MTV. (Simon & Schuster, 2006), he made a began to perform poetry at the Nuyorican side of himself, it’s far from lacking in similar claim. The book’s premise was th a t He laughs, “That’s probably the best Cafe, winning the title of Grand Slam serious subject matter, as Williams explores the author had found a mystic scroll of point I never made. People were like, ‘Why Champion in 1996. Williams performed in tlie effect of racism on the psyche of an yellow-brown paper rolled tightly inside a did you let that song go with Nike?’ I* Chicago in 2008 a t Lollapalooza and in New individual. He also expresses an uplifting spray-paint can underneath the third rail of should’ve said, ‘Have you ever seen who my York at that year’s Afro-Punk Festival, a free message of self-respect and. unity. the New York subway system. He then books are put out by?’ Those corporations . c.e.le.bration. of th&. co i ning-tag et h e ro f— “(We are) the. gatekeepers and the street- channelled the ancient prophetic poetry on; owe us.” ' • countercultures across racial# sexual, and sweepers. A mountain of ports outside of a the scrolls through a meditative process to In several Written responses to criticism, gender boundaries. The Afro-Punk Festival city of dreams. A bird that prays, yet offers understand the power of hip-hop. Williams has stated that “if you want to stop was also the sponsor of the recent Niggy its wingspan to the wind. Things are not as “I believe so much in the power of something, you have to go inside it”— < Tardust tour. they seem. We hover above while giving the imagination. That’s the main thing missing encouraging people, essentially, to “Niggy Tardust is a hybrid,” Williams says appearance of scurrying below. All is as it from hip-hop a lot of the time,” Williams participate in th e establishment in order to of the character on his NiggyTV podcast, should bp. We are more than we know. More says. “I wanted to write about feeling like a effect positive change within i t available bn iTunes. “He’s a nickname that I than we hoped and dreamed, a generation of give to the up-and-cbming revolving generators, a power source and supply.” perspective o f . . . people that realize that —“Pedagogue of Young Gods,” from The we are one, that everything that is this land Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy " I believe so much in the power of Im agination. That's the and of this land is in us. Tardust (2007) “In the same way, the music defies genre < m ain thing missing from hip-hop a lot of the tim e," W illiam s Niggy Tardust represents a unique . . . I don’t believe that we as individuals blending of the rock and hip-hop genres, but says. " I wanted to write about feeling like a vessel. The book should be beholden to stick within the ‘ that’s not surprising for an artist who’s is written as a confession I wanted to reach out to, like, 12- performed with everyone from poet Allen boundaries of whatever society tells us we to 15-year-old kids in (juvenile detention) who don't feel like are . . . Niggy Tardust is the one who stands Ginsberg to KRS-One to Zach de la Rocha of up and says, ‘You know what, f— all that — Rage Against the Machine. The song “Tr(n) reading. I’m as'white asT am black, I’m as igger” features a sample of Public Enemy’s indigenous as l am foreign, I am as alien as I “Welcome to the Terrordome,” and Williams am from here, I’m all of these things at covers U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” the once/'So he takes words like ‘n—‘ and video for which features him playing a names like Ziggy Stardust and does the vessel. The book is w ritterras a confession homeless man struggling to survive in a “That’s the biggest cloak poetry has put traditional B-boy stance in front of i t . . . and shantytown that gets raided. ...I wanted to reach out to, like, 12- to over me,” he says. “Whatever I might (there’s) Niggy Tardust.” 15-year-old kids in (juvenile detention) who believe in, or people might think I believe Ziggy Stardust was a “Martian Messiah,, don’t feel like reading. in, ever since I was a five-year-old kid Homelessness ‘comes from a few who twanged a guitar,” a “fictional rock - “It was also the first step in realizing that rapping, dancing, ready for the big stage, I different angles9 superstar” created by musician David Bowie if I wanted to achieve certain goals I had to was never afraid of conglomerates. That was in the early ‘70s who was dropped onto let go of things, and in this case that thing just part of my scope, that commercial side When Streetw ise asked Williams for his Earth just as the planet entered its last five was m e — my story, Saul Williams. I had to of things; That was more of my intent than thoughts on homelessness in America, he years of existence, according to Bowie’s get away from the serious-thinking, th e other stuff. I always intended to do th a t -had this to say: “The homeless situation Web site. A simple soul, Ziggy began to philosophical side and explore the fun side Like, I didn’t intend to become a p o e t... But comes from a few different angles. Thinking think like an earthling and became the of i t ... to express closer to who I am by it’s one thing to play ignorant — it’s hard to of health care, when people were let out of victim of his own success, “a rock ‘n’ roll excusing th e projected self from the story ^actually be i t I was always mad at i t Like, institutions and what have you, with Reagan suicide.” and stepping into something else more someone would say, ‘Hey, did you know that discharging folk onto the streets so you have Near the conclusion of Niggy’s 19-city ‘me’— by creating a character, like Raymond Twinkles are made of melted children?’ or - a community of homeless discharged from North American tour last October, Williams something, and I’d be like, ‘F*-, why did you. Joshua for Slam, which wasn’t that much of various institutions. . . I mean, we have to - said in an exclusive interview with a stretch but goes a bit further out and' tell me that?’-I’m interested in learning, but find a better way to take care of our citizens Streetw ise that .“I feel like I internally had deeper in.” I always wanted to perform.” . . . it goes so deep.” already concluded hfin, so this is like going In the 1998 film Slam, for which Williams He continued, “For example, you have back in time.”" Williams says he’s now ready is credited as a co-writer, he stars as Ray, a ¥ use of drugs in place of an alternative Niggy increased ‘the swagger9 to plunge into some new projects, including young, gifted.hip-hop M P who’s trapped in a treatm ent (that would allow) someone to - In many ways, Williams says, the Niggy a play, his fifth book, and his fourth album. . gang-dominated housing project in build something on their own without the Tardust character has allowed him to do just The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Washington, D.C. After Ray takes part in a use of a crutch, so (there would be) less that — to have a little fun, to simply perform. drug deal that ends in a friend’s death, he’s Niggy Tardust, composed in collaboration chance of falling ... Homelessness is a “Niggy was gracious enough to allow me to with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, was caught between rival gangs in prison, where strange phenomenon, especially in America, use him to learn a few things, express a few distributed on a “name your own price” he stages a unifying poetry slam. The film when you consider the potential of the basis at SaulWilliams.com in October 2007. - things ... I guess you could say Lneede'd him won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance infrastructure. Except when it’s a choice — to increase the swagger.” At the same time, Williams drew criticism Film Festival, and its soundtrack features there’s a fine line there, but it’s a big Williams sees himself as the medium when he lent the song “List of Demands Williams’s first major recording, “The Ocean difference. We made a film, Kiiigs of LA, through which Niggy Tardust has spoken. In (Reparations)” to a Nike commercial. It Within,” a collaboration with hip-hop legend his third book of poetry, The Dead Emcee wasn’t Williams’s first taste of corporate KRS-One. See WILLIAMS, page 11 Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop sponsorship — his books are published by Although he sees theN iggy Tardust a
