Spoken word poet Saul Williams has been an influential figure for nearly a decade now. But until recently the story of how the poet/rapper/actor/musician got into the poetry realm was a mystery.

‘The Dead Emcee Scrolls (The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop),’ takes you inside the brain of the lyrical and spiritual genius. It’s a collection of journal excerpts spanning the last seven years.

‘I want people to enjoy it,’ Williams said. ‘I think if I were a fan and I picked up this book, I would probably feel excited about having a young black male sharing intimate thoughts for real. Because, honestly, not everyone is doing that. That’s what we loved about Pac. That he was really sharing his intimate thoughts.’

The most intriguing section of the book is titled ‘A Confession’ which tells the story of the Morehouse Grad who came to New York in 1994. While working towards his Master’s Degree at New York University, Williams stumbled across a container while walking through an abandoned subway line. Inside were a series of scrolls written in graffiti which Williams dissected line by line.

And as they say, the rest is history.

Right and left, Williams was receiving offers to open for legendary names like The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka.

“It kind of frees me up, that’s how I see it,” Williams said on having his journal made public. “I’m excited because it’s like giving birth. I feel freed by the idea of it being released.”

The N-word, which is used throughout the book, wasn’t articulated in its traditional form. Instead, Williams abbreviated the controversial word and used “NGH” instead.

“If you look at a lot of the ancient Hebrew, the way they would write down language, they would often omit the vowels sounds from the names of gods,” Williams said. “It’s a way of writing down the names of Gods without vowels from ancient times. I connected it to the word nigger…just because…I felt like something to the word had to be done so why not elevate it.”

Besides from his poems, the book is a quasi-tribute to hip-hop. So what exactly are Williams’ thoughts on the current state of hip-hop?

“Hip-hop is really fun right now,” Williams said. “I listen to a lot of the stuff coming out of Atlanta and Memphis. What I find exciting is when it comes to most of the new songs -- it’s all about new dances. And that’s like my favorite time in hip-hop, when the music was about the dances.”

‘I think there is this conception that I would be opposed to the commercial stuff and that I would be into Common and Talib, period. To me it’s not about conscious hip-hop, it’s about progressive hip-hop. For the long time I have felt the beats have been progressive but the lyrics haven’t been up to par.”

Saul Williams will soon hit the road for a second tour with rock group Nine Inch Nails before returning to the studio to record a new album. Be sure to catch him!