Taking time out from tours with Nine Inch Nails and My Morning Jacket, Saul Williams is out to Australia this month for the Sydney Festival. Williams was one of the big highlights at the Oya Festival in Norway last year:

“Saul Williams is like a bomb exploding on stage, a man possessed. Out of Rick Rubin’s shadow, Williams is awesome and his MCing is far closer to hip-hop than the spoken word he’s usually associated with. MPC-manipulator Adlib (aka Thavius Beck) tears out Brooklyn/Wordsound-style junglist breakbeats and broken beats, it’s a fiery concoction that prods Williams into one of the best hip-hop performances I’ve seen this year. It’s threatening, empowering music, with subject matter ranging from black power and Sierra Leone to diamond mining.”

I hoped to interview him here, but it didn’t happen. Fortunately, Dale Harrison from Cyclic did and the full Q&A is up at the blog. It’s especially interesting because Dale’s in the interview, if you know what I mean, and Williams is pretty frank too.

DH:From my perspective I’d draw a line between mainstream hiphop which i’d actually refer to as pop music more than hiphop per se

SW:Well, I disagree. People become blinded by something because it’s gone platinum. If that first 50 Cent album ain’t a dope ass hiphop album I don’t know what is. Granted I cannot imagine 50 Cent repping for breakdancers, graffiti writers, you know he doesn’t represent the hiphop culture like some would like him to do. But is he dope ass MC? Yeah… Has he become comfortable as a dope MC and is he now starting to get weak as result of getting comfortable? Yeah. But anybody getting comfortable gets wack. Y’know, don’t get comfortable.

I’d say he’ll be worth seeing at the Sydney shows.