Saul Williams releases his new album, Leap Life (Big Dada), out today. Named after his leap year birthday, Leap Life arrives less like a conventional studio record and more like an invocation assembled in real time — a gathering of spirits, histories, frequencies and unfinished revolutions arranged through voice, rhythm and intuition. Leap Life marks Williams’ first solo full-length work in seven years, and a return to the label where he originally released his first solo works – 1998’s “Twice The First Time” and “Elohim (1972).”

With Leap Life, which includes notable contributions and collaborations from the likes of Gonjasufi, Moor Mother, Carlos Niño, Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack), Kamasi Washington, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Surya Botofasina, Williams expands the definition of what music itself can be, operating on the philosophy that “the voice is the instrument.” Williams describes the album as deeply informed by ideas of ceremony and shamanism. Not in the commodified Western sense of spirituality-as-aesthetic, but in the older understanding of music as a tool capable of carrying grief, resistance, and healing simultaneously.

Coinciding with the release of Leap Life is also Williams’ first-ever book of nonfiction, Songs My Mother Taught Me, out September 8th via Haymarket Books. Songs My Mother Taught Me is Williams’ clear-eyed exploration of the role of the artist in these times by answering the question: what radicalized you? He answers by examining how his role models—writers and artists, from Amiri Baraka to local musicians in Brazilian bars to Palestinian hip-hop heads—have responded to imperialist violence, oppression, and genocide. Williams explains: “Between March-August of 2025 (six months), I recorded ‘Leap Life’ and wrote ‘Songs My Mother Taught Me.’ I had spent the previous two years, like many, glued to my phone, witnessing the many crimes against humanity perpetuated by western powers and felt that it was time to shift gears and appeal through the mediums which I know best.” Riffing on Paul Robeson’s famous declaration, Williams builds a provocative case for why today’s artists cannot remain neutral in the face of injustice. Songs My Mother Taught Me is available for pre-order here.