Saul Williams

Arriving six years after he made a splash with the film Slam and three years after his debut disc Amethyst Rock Star, the second album from spoken-word standout Saul Williams is a knot of contradictions. It challenges hip-hop orthodoxy through the liberal use of heavy rock samples and beats (see especially "Grippo")--not to mention incendiary cameos from rockers Serj Tankian (System of a Down) and Zack De La Rocha (Rage Against the Machine)--but it also gets bogged down at times by repetitive riffs ("List of Demands"). At his best, as on the opener "Talk to Strangers," Williams's measured delivery packs an entrancing power. Elsewhere, however, he sounds like he's just reading, not flowing, and his words fall flat. It doesn't help that Williams occasionally lapses into lecture mode, broadly dissing commercial hip-hop in the spoken-word piece "Telegram." He fares far better when he turns his lyrical lasers on legitimate foes, like the oil-thirsty warmongers in "Act III Scene 2." --Anders Smith Lindall

Saul Williams Album: