...
Show More
This book is well mapped out, but really not for me.
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
The Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop
...
Show More
In the underground labyrinths of New York City's subway system, beneath the third rail of a long forgotten line, Saul Williams discovered scrolls of aged yellowish-brown paper rolled tightly into a can of spray paint. His quest to decipher this mystical ancient text resulted in a primal understanding of the power hip-hop has to teach us about ourselves and the universe around us.
Now, for the first time, Saul Williams shares with the world the wonder revealed to him by the Dead Emcee Scrolls.
I have paraded as a poet for years now. In the proc ess of parading I may have actually become one, but that's another story, another book. This book is a book that I have been waiting to finish since 1995. This is the book that finished me. The story I am about to tell may sound fantastic. It may anger some of you who have followed my work. You may feel that you have come to know me over the years, and in some cases you have, but in others...well, this is a confession.
Now, for the first time, Saul Williams shares with the world the wonder revealed to him by the Dead Emcee Scrolls.
I have paraded as a poet for years now. In the proc ess of parading I may have actually become one, but that's another story, another book. This book is a book that I have been waiting to finish since 1995. This is the book that finished me. The story I am about to tell may sound fantastic. It may anger some of you who have followed my work. You may feel that you have come to know me over the years, and in some cases you have, but in others...well, this is a confession.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 31,2006
This edition
- Format
-
208 pages, Paperback
- Published
-
February 1, 2006 by MTV Books
- ISBN
-
9781416516323
- ASIN
-
1416516328
- Language
-
English
Readers also enjoyed
Community Reviews
Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 92 votes)
5 stars
36(39%)
4 stars
30(33%)
3 stars
26(28%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
92 reviews All reviews
...
Show More
Brother Saul is one the takes us into parallel places looking into the very lives we lead from the view of a messenger.
...
Show More
I must admit, I like Saul Williams performances better than his books. The same words on a page seem to lose their life somehow. Still, the concept of this book is awesome: Saul claims to have found scrolls of ancient poetry written in a language that he eventually deciphers through a magical sort of vision. It is these poems that he credits with his rise in the Slam Poetry world and many of them will be familiar to anyone who has listened to his cds.
...
Show More
Thinkin of a master plan. Lyrically smoove
...
Show More
He is brilliant.
...
Show More
Another Excellent book from Saul Williams... if you love poetry, outmindish thinking and or/hiphop, this is a must have...
...
Show More
So I'm not much into modern poetry (how on earth does one start, or even get bearings? You may well be diving but I, I am merely sinking), but you've got to keep trying things out. Anyway, if you've missed Blackalicious's epic performance of Dr. Williams's "Release (Parts 1, 2, 3)" on 2002's Blazing Arrow, go acquaint yourself with some of the most daring, innovative, inspiring rap made this decade -- seriously, go do it; the album's an epic achievement and represents everything good about hip-hop. His imagery's a bit more informal than I like from a PhD, and I've really no patience for "social commentary" written after 1980 or thereabouts (c'mon, if you can't make it now, you never could've made it, so shut up and go generate economic output (but see note below)), but his lyricism's outstanding and I am a real sucker for these lines:
...Catchphrases and misunderstandings
But they are not what I feel when I am alone
Surrounded by everything and nothing
And there isn’t a word or phrase to be caught
A verse to be recited
An iamb to defile my being in those moments
I am blankness; the contained center of an “O”
The parametric containment of an “A”
I stand in the middle of all that I have learned
All that I have memorized
All that I’ve known by heart
Unable to reach any of it
There is no sadness
There is no bliss
It is a forgotten memory
A memorable escape route that only is found by not looking
There, in the spine of the dictionary the words are worthless
They are a mere weight pressing against my thoughtlessness
But then, who else can speak of thoughtlessness with such confidence
Who else has learned to sling these ancient ideas
Like dead rats, held by their tails,
So as not to infect this newly oiled skin?
I can think of nothing heavier than an airplane
I can think of no greater conglomerate of steel and metal
I can think of nothing less likely to fly
No wings more weighted...
beautiful. We'll see how this goes.
ps: things like this are said because they're fun to say. please don't turn my goodreads into a political debate. i'm well aware of how horribly insular and banal this comment comes off, i promise.
pps: the political debate restriction does not apply to Apple Computer, whose policies do more to hold back humanity than stem cell opponents and anti-nuclear activists put together. Every time I see one of those stickers, I want to take a sledgehammer to the pretension-cart on which it rides. You people are more obnoxious than Opus Dei and would find yourselves beside the Khmer Rouge on Judgement Day if the whole concept of the Judeo-Christian value function F() wasn't an undefined bunch of rubbish.
ppps: but even Apple confounds me less than the idea of "natural diets". we're all pulling up chairs at the same periodic table, folks. don't let the organo-farmergrocer complex turn you into little eichmanns. remember: nothing is too big to be knocked on its ass and everything is cool, baby.
...Catchphrases and misunderstandings
But they are not what I feel when I am alone
Surrounded by everything and nothing
And there isn’t a word or phrase to be caught
A verse to be recited
An iamb to defile my being in those moments
I am blankness; the contained center of an “O”
The parametric containment of an “A”
I stand in the middle of all that I have learned
All that I have memorized
All that I’ve known by heart
Unable to reach any of it
There is no sadness
There is no bliss
It is a forgotten memory
A memorable escape route that only is found by not looking
There, in the spine of the dictionary the words are worthless
They are a mere weight pressing against my thoughtlessness
But then, who else can speak of thoughtlessness with such confidence
Who else has learned to sling these ancient ideas
Like dead rats, held by their tails,
So as not to infect this newly oiled skin?
I can think of nothing heavier than an airplane
I can think of no greater conglomerate of steel and metal
I can think of nothing less likely to fly
No wings more weighted...
beautiful. We'll see how this goes.
ps: things like this are said because they're fun to say. please don't turn my goodreads into a political debate. i'm well aware of how horribly insular and banal this comment comes off, i promise.
pps: the political debate restriction does not apply to Apple Computer, whose policies do more to hold back humanity than stem cell opponents and anti-nuclear activists put together. Every time I see one of those stickers, I want to take a sledgehammer to the pretension-cart on which it rides. You people are more obnoxious than Opus Dei and would find yourselves beside the Khmer Rouge on Judgement Day if the whole concept of the Judeo-Christian value function F() wasn't an undefined bunch of rubbish.
ppps: but even Apple confounds me less than the idea of "natural diets". we're all pulling up chairs at the same periodic table, folks. don't let the organo-farmergrocer complex turn you into little eichmanns. remember: nothing is too big to be knocked on its ass and everything is cool, baby.
...
Show More
"it's the real... hip hop (hip hop)" (c) Mobb Deep
Leave a Review