Thursday, May 12, 2005
ghetto futurism
One of the many things that make me think these guys are not from here:
Saul Williams: I write for many reasons. I write with the audience in mind, but then I’m a member of my audience. So, part of me writes to fill the void of what I’m hearing and what I’d like to hear. And instead of being a music critic, I’m an artist, so, yeah, I write something like that. I also write because I believe there’s a power in saying a prayer or a mantra out loud—so, I write because I think there’s power in saying it and power in writing it. And also, because I believe in magical spells and shit like that and incantations and shit like that so I write for those reasons. Also, I’m kind of like that guy that creates the New York Times crossword puzzles—I write because I like the idea of delivering the mindfuck. So, it’s kind of like the tease element, you know? Sometimes, writing a rhyme is like some Victoria Secret type shit—like I’m putting these words in negligee, like, they’re going to tease the fuck out of you—you wish you could see these words naked! You wish you could get catch the meaning. But I’m the first to trip out on it as an audience member, so, yeah. So, it’s a little for myself and for others too.
Busdriver: I think there’s a real cathartic element in writing rhymes that unfortunately doesn’t get addressed in hiphop cause hiphop is seen as such an aggressive, kind of alpha-male, hands-on contact sport. But in writing a rhyme and really examining the rhyme structures and gathering words and terms is really…I don’t know, it really soothes you. I write cause I’ve fallen in love with the whole process, the whole experience. I’ll write a rhyme in day or an hour then I’ll have this other rhyme that I’ll take a month on, just playing with it, going back to it. So, yeah. It’s good.
Rob Sonic: In that sense, the writing aspect is probably more for us than anything else. Even if cats get in for the wrong reasons, you can’t do that much writing and not gain a deeper sense of purpose.
