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
Similar quotes
I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.
Tracy ChapmanRead
I discovered that writing was very nice indeed when I was very young, and I never changed. I don't think my style has changed very much at all - though I hope what I say is a bit more interesting. It's about getting to know a character and loving them, I think.
Jane GardamRead
Some split between the inner world and outer world is common to all behaviour, and the need to bridge the gap is the source of creative behaviour.
Anthony StorrRead
There are millions of chords. There are millions of numbers. And everyone forgets the one that is a zero. But without the zero, numbers are just arithmetic. Without the empty chord, music is just noise.
Terry PratchettRead
The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight... [Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.
M. F. K. FisherRead
Emily Dickinson never developed. She remained loyal to her persona and to that same little metrical song that stood her in such good stead. She is a striking example of complexity within a simple package. Her rhymes are like bows on the package.
Billy CollinsRead