Saul Williams | S6 Episode 29

If you'd like to see full video of this and other episodes, join the Reel Notes Patreon at the Homie ($5/month) tier or higher. Each episode is also available to buy individually at $5 for regular episodes and $10 for Reel Talk playbacks (Buy it through a web browser and not the Patreon app. You'll get charged extra if you purchase through the app.) You also get early access to episodes, an invite to our Discord server, access to the Reel Talk archives, and more!

My guest this week is New York-born rapper, poet, activist, actor, and author, Saul Williams. We spoke about Michael, John Cassavetes’s Gloria, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, his love for horror films and how The Shining inspired him to become an actor, growing older with hip-hop and several anecdotes about the old and the new of the genre, working on the film Neptune Frost with his wife Anisia Uzeyman, the power of sticking to your morals over a 30-year career, sociopolitical art, and the creative process behind Leap Life, his first solo album in seven years. Come fuck with us.

Leap Life is available now wherever music is sold, streamed, or stolen. Consider copping directly from Saul's Bandcamp page or on physical via Ninja Tune. Follow Saul on Instagram and Twitter (@saulwilliams) and TikTok (@saulwilliams29).

Reel Notes stands in solidarity with American immigrants against ICE and the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund,  The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. Protest, fight back, and fuck the system.

My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped in to all things Dylan Green.  Follow Hearing Things at hearingthings.co or @hearingthingsco on all social platforms.