Saul Williams - The Future of Language

in the beginning was the word. word. and the word was with God. and the word was God. word up. and God said, let there be…and (then) there was. word is bond. and the word was made flesh. word life.

a latin transcription of the word “person” is “being of sound”. as human beings we communicate with each other and the greater universe through sound vibration. it is, thus, the essence of our collective being. all sounds reverbrate with meaning. every sound vibration has an effect and every sound connected with every word we speak, in every syllable is connected to it’s eternal meaning, it’s eternal reverbration. the original inhabitants of egypt (KMT) actually documented the esoteric meaning of each sound vibration.they believed that all consonant sounds communed with energies of a temporal reality, whereas vowel sounds connected us with energies of the eternal reality. in their written text they only wrote consonants for the eternal reality was too sacred to be transcribed. the ancient egyptian language like all other languages of antiquity was, needless to say, rooted in passion. yet, over time, many cultures have become disconnected from the passionate roots of their language and thus, perhap, disconnected from the root of our existence.

nada brahma: the world is sound

in the east, it is widely believed that the word/sound om is the seed of the universe and the seed of all creation that can be heard reverbrating within all life forms. practically all religions over time have focused on the power of sound vibration. whether through the chanting of om, buddhist and hindu chants, islamic prayers and calls to worship, or reciting hail mary and the lord’s prayer, the common thread has been the investment in the belief that change will come about through voicing these sacred words, aloud. yet, like the ancient egyptians many of these belief systems have also held to the idea that there is a realm of eternal reality that cannot be put into words. in the words of the eastern mystic lao-tsu:

the tao that can be told is not the eternal tao.
the name that can be named is not the eternal name.
the unnamable is the eternally real.
naming is the origin of all particular things.

thus, the future of language would involve us getting closer and closer to be being able to articulate the unspoken. consciousness, like technology, evolves over time. in the same way that there are advances made in technology that may take a decade or more before it reaches the public, there are also shifts in consciousness that readily become understandable by the masses over time. so that an idea that perhaps the twelfth dalai lama acheived through meditation however many years ago may just be reaching the level of common understanding by the average young american, today. ideas and concepts that perhaps our parents could not grasp until mid-life crisis may be now grasped by adolescent teens.and things that once could only be put into words by the most learned philosophers can now be expressed by the average emcee (and in my estimation most emcees that i hear are average).

i had the priviledge of co-writing a film called Slam, the story of a young kid who learns the power of word and uses it to transcend his given reality. in writing this film i decided to give the main character the last name Joshua, based on the biblical story of Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho by simply marching around the city’s walls seven times playing his trumpet and the walls came tumbling down. i figured that if the film was played on seven hundred screens the walls of babylon would come tumbling down, mainly because of the spells laced into the poetry of the film. i have often thought of my poetry in terms of it being incantaions: spells (note: magic is done though casting spells which is the same way words are made) or prayers to be recited in darkest caves and highest mountain tops.in writing, i often feel as if i am deciphering age old equations and am often as baffled an audience member as any other listener or reader. i have also found numerous occasions where i have felt that i wrote or recited a situation into existence.

i write in red ink
that turns blue
when the book closes

language usage is a reflection of consciousness, thus, the future of language is co-related to the ever-evolving state of human awareness. as we become more aware of our existing reality it becomes clear that we live with the power of dictating our given situations and thus the power to determine our future. our present reality is pre-sent dictated by what we asked for previously. no, i am not saying that everything that happens to us is within our control, yet, through our perception we have the ability to determine much more of our reality than we realize (all puns intended). and what we say (which is clearly a reflection of what and how we think) is of the ut-most (utter-most) importance. what we say matters (becomes a solid: flesh). word life.

so then the question becomes, what role does hip hop play in the future of language? or rather, what role does the future of language play in hip hop? there does seem to have been a lyrical evolution in hip hop. vivid, descriptive narratives of ghetto life seem to have come at the cost of imaginative or psycho-spiritual exploration. in other words, niggas have come up with amazing ways to talk about the same ol shit. the problem is, when we recite the same ol shit into micrphones which increase sound vibration the same ol shit continues to manifest in our daily lives. but of course employing one’s imagination is problematic when the aim is to keep it real. in a book called the illusions by richard bach, the main character finds that when jesus reportedly said that all one needs is faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains he actually only said faith because at the time there wasn’t a word for imagination. it is imagination applied to our daily lives and use of language that brings about interesting futures. hip hop, as is, is mainly concerned about depicting a rough street life void of hope or an upscale designer life void of thought and in doing so dicates it’s own outcome. if biggie’s album had not been entitled ready to die would he still be alive today? did his vocalized profession dictate his destination? the fact that we were so ready to hear about how he was ready to die increased the sound vibration of his recitation through playing it on a million radios and televisions at a time to the point where it effected our reality and his.

word is bond.

“these are the words that i manifest”
- guru

we are the manifestaion of our thinking patterns. and we think in terms of terms. words. sooner or later we must realize that we are liable for what and how we think and say and thus must alter (altar) our use of language. sentence structures predate pyramids and are as complex. realize, even in asking me to describe the future of language, i am simply playing my part in determining it by helping those who read this to become more aware of the importance of what they say. and that (this) is how the future comes about.

word.