Hood Rep: Yo son, I just copped this new cat’s album and he rhymes straight nice.

Me: Really? Well who is he?

Hood Rep: Yo, check it, his name is Saul Williams. Ain’t that a dope name man? It sounds all religious, dog, like he’s about to rain fire on them whack fools. You heard of him?

Me: Yeah, I have. The album’s not bad; a little didactic in parts but cohesive and ver…

Hood Rep: Yo, I don’t think you heard me, son. I said his rhymes are DOPE, like, taking it back to the old school hood romp of Run and Grandmaster Flash. This dude’s on some serious Krs-One trip man; dude talks about realness you ain’t heard of before.

Me: Well, not really. At best he merely offers slight and interesting permutations of agendas already in the ether.

Hood Rep: Yo, I don’t think you truly listened to this album, man. The rhymes he be spittin’ is rough and smart, it gets in your head and, like, buries itself in there. His rhymes build a house in your head, man!!

Me: Yeah, ok, could you stop saying ‘Yo’ so much? He’s good, ok? He’s good. But, for one, he’s more of a poet than a rapper, and the queer cadences and pitches he employs often feel like Red Herrings for the old messages he trumpets. But if you …

Hood Rep: Yo! Me: … forget that message

Hood Rep: Yo!!!!

Me: … has already been aired bef…

Hood rep: YO!!! Me: WHAT?!

Hood Rep: What about a song like ‘Act III, Scene 2,’ where he …

Me: Yeah, yeah, uses Marc Antony’s infamous calumny against Brutus and Caesar’s other murderers from Julius Caesar, instead painting Bush and his cohorts as the slayers and liars and the listener as the frenzied crowd. It’s actually a very nice track, one of the few standouts of the album, and the addition of a chorus sung by Zach De La Rocha adds a more acute political sensibility to the piece. It’s a fine track, Hood Rep.

Hood Rep: Yeah, I knew you’d think that track was hot. Hey, hey, you should also hear ‘Tele…

Me: ‘Telegram’ (to Hip-Hop)? Yeah, not the most original concept. Other rappers have made the same point in far more articulate ways, like Common’s ‘I used to love H.E.R.,’ though that’s not to say this track isn’t bad. The template of a telegram makes his repeated use of the word “Stop” an effective, albeit simplistic, double entendre. It’s also one of the tracks where his facility as a poet comes in handy far more than that of a rapper.

Hood Rep: Ok, but you ain’t truly listened to …

Me: ‘African Student Movement?’ Yeah, it’s a very tight distillation of the underlying issues of class warfare eating at African-Americans in the states as well as the globe, but his staccato performance and staggered rhymes may come off as lacking a cohesive message at times. It’s a topic dealt with more capably by musicians like Dalek, who have done so since their career’s very genesis.

Hood Rep: Well what of …

Me: The album’s sound in general? It’s fine, it really is. The ample use of distorted guitar samples adds heft to a lot of the songs and his repeated change in the sound of a simple downbeat gives each piece a distinct sonic orientation to append to the singular message. The beats are fine.

Hood Rep: Then…

Me: Then why aren’t I falling head over heels for the album? Because it’s a fine record, Hood Rep. The problem is that everyone else seems to love it because of some pre-established concept of a hip-hop locus, especially one that essays for an untenable idea of purity. I mean, have you read some of the accolades? Rags like XXL and Vibe consider him the ‘Anti-Hip-Hop’ Musician merely because he compiles an album of agendas that have already been out there for years now. Look, you love the album because, and don’t be offended, you have a pretty narrow conception of the genre’s emotional and intellective range. It’s a fine album, man, it is. But it’s no revolution. Hood Rep: You some kinda critic or somethin?

Me: No, I just love Hip-Hop and can’t stand this absurd and reductive trumpeting. The same people who tout this album as genre-defying (including Williams himself) have a pretty basic idea of the genre’s range. Look around, Hood Rep: Hip-Hop is global. TTC know that, M.I.A. knows that, and Dizzee Rascal knows that. Those who are making the biggest changes to the music don’t even live here. Hood Rep: …

Me: What?

Hood Rep: Man, you need to stop sippin’ on that Haterade.