Lost Scriptures of Hip Hop

Old and white, and I still get it.

Saul Williams creates a miracle book pretending to be something else. He re-writes history exclusive to change, except the way you see it when you read it.

Beginning with “The Confession”, Saul Williams takes you deep into the catacombs of the New York City Subways’ abandoned tunnels. Confronted with unique tags on subway walls, Saul is inspired.

Surrounded by empty paint spray cans, he picks one up at random and shakes, feeling it full. Pops the lid and instead of a spray nozzle, there’s a paper rolled tightly inside, just as the original Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

Saul Williams brings the can home.

He partially unrolls the paper, and attempts to decipher it, realizing it’s something special. Then the magic begins to happen as he takes a journal and records his translation.
Jack Spicer, one of the lost poets, said that:

“Poets are merely the dictation machines of the Gods.”

As Saul translates the scrolls, he is fascinated. Feeling a desire to share, he reads one of the scrolls at an open mike.

Williams also stars in the film “Slam”, telling the story of a lost poet who is found. This is exactly what The Dead Emcee Scrolls does for him. The book is an experience that can only translate itself. It doesn’t matter what color you are, what religion you are, what gender you are, the Scrolls have to be read to be understood. This understanding you get from the Scrolls, is dependant on how you look at the world.

Will The Dead Emcee Scrolls change you? It changed me, and I was beyond change, never reading anything even remotely hip hop. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching for an experience that will widen your worldview.

Upon reading, and at first criticizing, I found myself realizing that there are still Spiritual realities I need to remain open to.

I remember a time I had met Saul Williams at Harvard and listened to him read. It was an uplifting experience. The book brought me out to the Internet and I found myself wanting to hear him again…

I am looking into Saul Williams’s eyes, as he stands on an overpass in a nameless city, with two musicians he speaks his truth as the trumpet is blowing and the drummer is beating the heartbeat of his words to the world. In another video on the net, Saul Williams is walking to the stage and he unrolls a giant piece of paper and starts:

“I stand on the corner of the block slinging amethyst rocks. Drinkin 40’s of mother earth’s private nectar stock. Dodgin’ cops. ‘Cause Five-0 be the 666 and I need a fix of that purple rain. The type of shit that drives membranes insane. Oh yeah, I’m in the fast lane. Snorting candy yams. That free my body and soul and send me like Shazaam!”

But this is only a taste of Saul Williams work, and of The Dead Emcee Scrolls. The book is in its 10th printing and is worth the read to share his message. The Dead Emcee Scrolls can be found on Amazon or ordered at The Harvard Book Store. Published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

-Marc D. Goldfinger