Niggy in Paris: Saul Williams drops Volcanic Sunlight, from France, with love
The wordsmith puts his own unorthodox spin on love and pop
- Sony France
?
As Kanye West would say, Saul Williams is definitely in his zone. For the last two years, the prolific wordsmith and occasional rock star has been residing in Paris, where he completed his latest studio album, Volcanic Sunlight (Sony), co-produced by Renaud Letang. Released in Europe last year, the follow up to his Trent Reznor-produced industrial epic The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust dropped stateside on 11.11.11, and it’s the avant-gardist’s first flirtation with danceable pop.
?
But don’t get it twisted. This ain’t “Niggas in Paris.” Rather than wax poetic on material excess and black excellence (see: Watch the Throne), Williams has crafted a simple but unorthodox love affair that’s less spoken word treatise than trance-inducing treaty.
?
In Part 1 of our interview, the Morehouse College alum talks about raising his daughter (a former student at Atlanta’s Inman Middle School) in Paris as a single dad, giving record labels the middle finger, and France’s hottest socioeconomic commodity: love.
?
When I heard you were living in Paris, I immediately thought of famous black expatriates like—
?
Saul Williams: James Baldwin … Richard Wright … Nina Simone?
?
Exactly. Obviously they were motivated to leave America by the kind of racism that doesn’t necessarily exist now, but do you see your move fitting into that tradition at all?
?
Naw. I can’t say that I do. Although, it’s not a bad list of names. My coming to Paris was kinda random. I’ve never really dreamt of living in Paris. And I pretty much came here, one, because there was a producer here that I wanted to work with, that’s Renaud Letang, the guy that ended up producing Volcanic Sunlight with me. I’ve been a fan of his work for years. I could’ve just come to record the album here, but when I started having that idea, I was looking for a place in L.A. where I was living, and I bumped into a friend in Paris while I was on tour. He showed me a place that cost the same thing that I was paying in L.A., and that’s when it hit me, like, “Oh shit, I can live in Paris for the same price as what I live in LA? Then why the fuck am I in LA?” So it was really more of a practical thing.
?
What are your days and nights like there? What do you do in Paris? What’s your lifestyle like?