Saul Williams Timeline
[70’s][80’s][90’s][2000-]
february 27, 1972
saul's mom, juanita sealy-williams, goes to see james
brown at the palace theater in albany ny. she is rushed
from the concert to albany memorial hospital.
february 29, 1972
saul stacey williams is born. his birth stone is amethyst.
(leap year)
june 1979
saul's oldest sister, juliette, encourages him to spend
his allowance to purchase the sugar hill gang's
“rapper's delight” and spoonie gee's “spoonin' rap”.
spring 1981
saul hears def jam's first single, t la rock's "it's
yours", and decides that he wants to be an emcee.
he takes his first style of rhyming from t la rock,
which in saul's 9 year old mind means using big words
in his raps..."comentating, illustrating,
description giving...."
spring 1986
saul purchases 3 blank certron tapes and with the help of a
local drummer friend and the music teacher’s permission he
records his first demo with a flat tape recorder in the
band room of his junior high school. saul sends it
to the address on the back of his ll cool j album. the
envelope is addressed to rick rubin and russell
simmons. they do not respond.
1987
the effect of rakim, bdp, public enemy, and big daddy
kane on saul, who has become the local rap star of
lunch table battle fame, is tremendous. the bragging
styles of run and ll are replaced with hard core,
philosophical styles. rakim is his new favorite. these
are the first hip hop albums that he is able to play
to the consenting nod of his parents. hip hop becomes the
language of black youth rebellion and consciousness. saul is able
to incorporate all of his parents sociopolitical/racial ideas into
his rhymes and still be cool. he also wins a local talent show
battling three emcees for the title. the one in the wheel
chair tries to jump him.
summer 1988
saul is an exchange student to brazil. he learns
portuguese by translating public enemy, the jungle
brothers and sade into the language. he begins writing a
hip hop opera. his family sends him tapes of the cosby
show and yo mtv raps to keep him current.
july 1989
saul returns to ny. he is greeted by his cousin, duce,
who plays him public enemy's, fight the power, as they
drive from the airport. this is the first hip hop
song to make saul cry. spike lee's “do the right thing” is in
theaters. de la soul, kwame, special ed, hammer....
hip hop is forever changed. saul cannot believe all that
has happened while he traveled.
summer 1990
saul begins school at morehouse college in atlanta, georgia.
he majors in drama and philosophy.
1992
saul begins theory that hip hop is dopest on leap years.
autumn 1993
saul and friends decide to start a magazine called red clay.
saul creates a section called, “huh?”, where he writes
poetry and essays about socio/political concerns.
saul also writes his first play, "yellow for red", taken
from an organized confusion lyric. the play is about the
effects of misogyny in hip hop on a black brother and
sister relationship.
spring 1994
saul graduates from morehouse.
summer 1994
saul's graduation gift is to spend a month in west africa
with his mom who has been an exchange teacher in the
gambia for the past year. saul decides to keep a
journal for the first time and documents his travels and
thoughts. he listens to nas while traveling through
the senegambia by train and it blows his mind. he goes
to a hip hop club in bamako, mali.
autumn 1994
saul begins his graduate studies at nyu's graduate acting
program.
october 1994
saul attends his first poetry reading at a restaurant in
manhattan and discovers that this is where all
the amazing lyricists have gone (for they are
surely not on the radio).
march 16, 1995
saul reads first poem, "amethyst rocks", at the brooklyn moon
cafe for the first time and books several gigs as "a
poet"
spring-summer '95
saul opens for the last poets, the roots, gil scott
heron, amiri baraka,the fugees and krs one at “rock
against racism” and is fully initiated into ny's
poetry/underground hip hop scene. saul also begins
to participate with lyricists lounge.
january 1996
saul makes first recording, "twice the first time", on
mercury compilation, eargasms.
april 1996
saul's daughter, saturn river renge, is born. saul wins
the highly coveted nuyorican poet's cafe grand slam
championship. paul devlin begins shooting of
documentary, slamnation, which follows saul and ny
poetry teammates to the national poetry
competition in portland oregon.
may 1996
saul's poetry is excerpted on the cover of the sunday
new york times in an article about the growing popularity of
ny's poetry scene.
september 1996
saul begins third year in nyu's grad acting program. saul is
asked to collaborate as writer and actor in a film, slam,
by director marc levin.
october 1996
saul records, "ohm", for lyricist's lounge, volume one.
may 1997
saul graduate's from nyu's grad acting program
june-july 1997
saul shoot's slam in washington, dc jail.
january 1998
slam wins the grand jury prize at the sundance film
festival
february 1998
the seventh octave, saul's first book of poetry is
published by moore black press. saul begin's his first
u.s. college tour reciting poetry.
may 1998
slam is awarded the camera d'or, the audience award for
“best picture”, and the distributors award for “best
picture” at the Cannes film festival.
summer 1998
travels to 8 european film festivals promoting slam and
reciting poetry.
july 1998
saul pen's book deal with mtv/pocketbooks
september 1998
saul pen's recording deal with american recordings
autumn 1998
tours u.s. colleges in slam sponsored poetry tour
october 1998
slam is released in theatres
december 1998
begins recording demos for amethyst rock star
feb.-april 1999
saul performs at over thirty u.s. colleges reciting poetry
and conducting poetry and hip hop workshops.
june 1999
she, saul's second book of poetry is released along with
mtv commercial that features saul reciting his
work. saul begins a ten city tour promoting the book.
october 1999
saul begins work on dutch financed indie film, king of la
january 2000
amethyst rock star is recorded at the cutting room, nyc
febraury 2000
saul's seventh birthday celebration at bowery ballroom.
he debuts songs from amethyst rock star and
collaborates with roni size and krust.
feb-april 2000
saul does major u.s. college tour from black history month
thru poetry month (april). receptions are held for
saul at both harvard and morehouse, his alma mater.
may 2000
saul flies to holland to compose and record soundtrack
and score of king of la.
august 2000
saul's son, xuly azaro, is born.
autumn 2000
saul does first 15 date tour with his band, debuting songs
from amethyst rock star.
december 2000
saul and band perform at transmusical festival in rennes,
france and gains favored media attention when voted “best
performance of the year” by french media.
january 2001
amethyst rock star is released in france
february 2001
begins shooting k-pax. (universal pictures).
march 2001
saul does 10 city french college tour reciting poetry and
discussing the connection of spoken word to hip hop.
april-may 2001
saul and band do first major european tour. 14 dates- 7
countries.
may 2001
the tour is contnued thru 6 u.s cities and 2 canadian.
june- july 2001
saul and band begin touring european festivals in 8
countries, including montreux jazz, rockskilde, and
eurokeenes.
august 13, 2001
amethyst rock star is released in u.k.
october 23,2001
amethyst rock star is released in the u.s.
