''The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!'' is the third solo studio album by

Saul Williams Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film ''Slam ( ...

. It was released in 2007. It peaked at number 41 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Heatseekers Albums The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

chart, as well as number 89 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart. The album is entirely produced by

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...

. The title of the album is a reference to

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's 1972 album ''

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' (often shortened to ''Ziggy Stardust'') is the fifth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 16June 1972 in the United Kingdom through RCA Records. It was ...

''.

Release

The album was available for purchase or free download at NiggyTardust.com. The website allowed users to pay $5 to support the artist and be given the choice of downloading a 192 kbit/s MP3 version, 320 kbit/s MP3 version or lossless

FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software ...

version. Digital distribution of the album is provided by Musicane. Reznor publicised the album on the

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

website and mailing list, saying that "Saul's not the household name that

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

is" and urging fans to support him. This was a reference to Radiohead's ''

In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a download, followed by a retail release internationally through XL Recordings on 3 December 2007 and in North America t ...

'', which was released in October on the band's own website with customers choosing how much they want to pay for the album. The free option has since been removed, with a message on the website claiming their intention had always been to remove it after 100,000 free downloads of the album. It was announced at nin.com that, as of January 2, 2008, two months since its release, 154,449 people had downloaded NiggyTardust. Of that number, 28,322 people chose to pay the asked price of US$5 (US$141,610 Total). In comparison, Saul's self-titled album has sold 30,000 copies since its release in 2004. A physical release of the album was released on July 8, 2008. It contained five bonus tracks.MVRemix

''MVRemix Urban'', May 23, 2008, Retrieved May 28, 2008.

Critical reception

Thom Jurek of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, saying: "This is Williams' finest moment, and interestingly, one of Reznor's, too." Quentin B. Huff of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' placed it at number 12 on the "101 Hip-Hop Albums of 2007" list.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. Musicians *

– vocals, programming *

– production, programming, backing vocals (5, 8) *

Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, composer, record producer, and audio engineer. He is best known for his work with American musician Trent Reznor, with whom he first worked on the musical project Tapewo ...

– additional programming * Thavius Beck – production (1, 7), programming (1, 7) * CX KiDTRONiK – production, programming, backing vocals (1, 6) * Isaiah "Ikey" Owens – keyboards (7) * Xuly Azaro – backing vocals (9) * Maryam Nalo Blacksher – viola (13) * Gingger Shankar – double violin (13) *

Persia White Persia White (born October 25, 1972) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Lynn Searcy on the UPN/ CW sitcom '' Girlfriends''. She is also known for her role as Abby Bennett Wilson in '' The Vampire Diaries'' (2012–2017). ...

– backing vocals (11) *

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...

– mixing *

Brian Gardner Brian Knapp Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, is an American mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk and dance-p ...

– mastering Technical personnel *

Angelbert Metoyer Angelbert Metoyer (born in July 1977 in Houston, Texas) (AN-gel-bər MUH-twy-ər) is an American visual artist on the forefront of afrofuturism. Metoyer began his artistic career through Rick Lowe's Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas and held ...

– artwork * Melody Ehsani – cover art, jewelry design * Rob Sheridan – graphic design, layout

Charts

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, The 2007 albums Albums free for download by copyright owner Saul Williams albums Albums produced by Trent Reznor Fader Label albums