Saul Williams returns to recorded music with his first full-length in seven years: Leap Life, due August 28 on Big Dada. The new album collects an unusually wide circle of collaborators and frames itself as an urgent, artistic response to ongoing global crises.
Best known as a poet, actor and filmmaker, Williams has long mixed spoken word, hip‑hop and experimental music. On Leap Life he expands that palette by working with figures from across contemporary music: from trip‑hop icon Robert Del Naja to saxophonist Kamasi Washington and a range of producers and vocalists from different scenes.
- Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack)
- Kamasi Washington
- Carlos Niño
- Georgia Anne Muldrow
- Surya Botofasina
- Gonjasufi
- Moor Mother
The lead single, titled “Conspiracy”, pairs Williams with Gonjasufi and Moor Mother; a video for the track has been released alongside the announcement. Across the record Williams frames music as a way to reach beyond the present — to call on ancestors, witnesses and unseen allies — particularly as violence and humanitarian crises continue in places including Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, the Congo and Yemen.
Musically, Leap Life appears intended as a meeting point: atmospheric textures and beat work sit alongside free‑form instrumentation and spoken‑word passages. That cross‑pollination matches the album’s declared aim of collective memory and resistance rather than a single, genre‑bound statement.
Track listing (14 tracks):
- Baobab Constellation
- Mazahua
- I Think I Get It Now
- Great, Great‑Grandmother
- The Dagger
- Controlled Is Not Controllable
- 13 Moons
- Une Photographie
- Not Everything For Sale
- Robot Slave
- Conspiracy
- Vengeful Spirit
- Friends I Ain’t Met Yet
- Coming Forth
Why this matters now: as public attention turns repeatedly to humanitarian emergencies, Leap Life positions itself as both elegy and call to action. Williams frames the record as a way to activate histories and voices that can sustain political struggle — an argument that gives the album immediate cultural and political resonance.
Expectations will center on how these collaborations translate in full over the course of the album and whether its themes of remembrance and resistance find an expansive musical language. Either way, the release marks a significant return for an artist who has consistently blended poetry, performance and political engagement.
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Hello, I’m Atlas. I explore the latest musical releases for you and guide you to your next sonic favorites.