Saving Sage Francis
Sage Francis is a packrat, with so much archived material stored away he claims even his mind is cluttered. But the Rhode Island rapper??€�s obsession with the past never leaves him treading familiar territory.
By Martin Turenne / photography by Anthony St. James
You??€�d think a guy who??€�s noted for being one of the best battle rappers in the world would be comfortable talking to you on the phone. But when URB first reaches out to Sage Francis for an interview, his label calls back to tell us that Sage would rather communicate via e-mail, not over the phone.
It seems appropriate, then, that when we finally track him down on the line in Sydney, Australia ??€� where he??€�s wrapping up a pre-Christmas tour ??€� the connection keeps breaking down, four times in the span of 90 minutes. Later, when he??€�s following up with us via e-mail, the Rhode Island rapper explains his aversion to the telephone.
??€?This is why phone interviews are dangerous for me: more often than not,??€? he writes, ??€?I give the wrong answer because I don??€�t feel comfortable enough to make you sit and wait in silence for 5 minutes while I dig into my junky brain and retrieve the real one.??€?
Poring over the tape of our phone conversation, it??€�s hard to detect any hesitation in Sage??€�s responses, most of which come out as fully constructed manifestos. In fact, Francis seems like the sort of person whose every sentence is declarative, each statement delivered with such conviction that it??€�s hard to tell whether there??€�s any vulnerability in him at all.
Still, the part about his brain being ??€?junky??€? makes more sense when you realize how much stuff he keeps stored up there ??€� and everywhere else, for that matter. If there is an overarching lesson Sage seems to be teaching us in his work ??€� from his Anticon debut Personal Journals through last year??€�s Lex collaboration with Joe Beats as Non-Prophets (Hope) to his new solo outing for Epitaph (A Healthy Distrust) ??€� it??€�s that an experience means nothing if we don??€�t document it.
Thus can we understand the obsessive details crammed in his diaristic Personal Journals and the litany of golden-era references on Hope, a pair of albums which aren??€�t so much celebrations of self as celebrations of that self??€�s prodigious memory. In this regard, A Healthy Distrust represents a new high point for Sage, who herewith crams half his life??€�s experiences into 15 compelling tracks. Nowhere is this archival mentality more audible than on ??€?Sea Lion??€?; after folksinger Will Oldham ushers in the tune with creaky-voiced tenderness, Sage??€�s first lines are:
Ma, Ma, look what I did, Ma.
Look what I did to my hands: I broke ??€?em.
You gave me the stone, you gave me the chisel,
But didn??€�t say how to hold ??€?em.
On first hearing these words, their meaning is not readily apparent, but as the song comes to an end, we hear a recording of a little boy asking his mother to teach him how to use a tape deck. The voice we hear is young Sage??€�s, captured at the age of nine.
??€?It??€�s just this tape I??€�ve had hanging around forever,??€? he says of the recording. ??€?At home, I??€�ve got all these archives of material. That??€�s what I do; I??€�m just a packrat of life. I document my existence as it goes and keep everything that represents an aspect of my life that I thought was important. Eventually, it all makes it into my art.??€?
Unlike Personal Journals ??€� which stuck to a narrow (if utterly idiosyncratic) biographical format ??€� Sage??€�s new album finds him taking on the world, positing himself as one among many billions of players strutting and fretting upon this polluted stage called Earth. But where most of us are content to fade into the backdrop, Sage refuses to stand anywhere but center stage.
It's 'Hang the DJ,'
Sage, not the rapper!
Given his background in the worlds of slam poetry and battle rapping, not to mention last year??€�s headline-grabbing Fuck Clear Channel tour, it??€�s no surprise to see him stepping to the fore, venting his spleen at our corporate-sponsored complacency. What separates Sage??€�s screeds from the rote protests offered by most rappers ??€� whether mainstream (the Beastie Boys) or underground (Michael Franti) ??€� is how intricately they??€�re constructed. It??€�s one thing to go on about how much Dubya sucks, but it??€�s quite another to do it with such subtle style ??€� a feat which Francis accomplishes time and again on A Healthy Distrust.
Take for example, ??€?The Buzz Kill,??€? which contains his clever take on America??€�s most recent bout of isolationism: ??€?I freedom kiss the French for their political dissent/Like ??€?moi!??€� I do it with tongue this time.??€? But reading this line in a magazine gives only half the story, because it??€�s the way that Sage puckers up to the microphone on the word ??€?moi??€? that really sells it, a delivery made all the more impressive when Sage tells you it was written months before all the other lyrics in the song.
??€?With every single track I write, at some point I go back through my mental files and incorporate some older idea,??€? he says. ??€?I hearken back to my older material and that always gives me perspective on where I??€�ve been and what I??€�d like to do right now. And when I see the perfect situation for a line like that to be used, I just lock it into place.??€?
Given how its songs were constructed, the most startling aspect of A Healthy Distrust is how tightly it coheres, Sage??€�s lyrics interlocking into dense narratives which practically demand you to shut out the world and listen closely. Quote hunters are rewarded here, too, as Sage serves up a few classics ??€� whether aggressively playful (??€?You??€�re the egg man: a flash in the pan and your yolk is running??€?) or darkly evocative (??€?I put my neck in a noose and swing to safety??€?). Sonically, too, this is the veteran??€�s most impactful statement to date, his voice hurtling through the mix like a hulking steam engine.
??€?With Personal Journals, I recorded it and mixed most of it without really knowing how to use the equipment,??€? he says of his vocals. ??€?That??€�s what offered that project a very raw sound. But on this one, I broke free of that structure and stepped it up a bit. I just wanted to see how I could jump out of the speakers and punch people in the face.??€?
Listeners, then, had better duck down when this album hits, because Sage is swinging at all comers, whether it??€�s homophobic rappers (??€?Gunz Yo??€?), parasitic lovers (??€?Agony in Her Body??€?), or just about everyone else (??€?Slow Down Gandhi??€?). The New Englander even takes a few sidelong swipes at a certain blonde-haired MC, a guy Sage used to do the battle rounds with in the late 1990s. When, during ??€?Dance Monkey,??€? he says ??€?Don??€�t live for the moment, live for the constant,??€? you can??€�t help wondering if Sage Francis has Marshall Mathers in his sights.
??€?Eminem is an artist I don??€�t like talking about because he never has to talk about me,??€? he says flatly. ??€?To me, he really isn??€�t doing anything all that interesting. He??€�s just somehow made his way into the households of America and now he??€�s the Madonna of hip-hop. He does things for attention and shows me basically what it is I??€�m glad I never really got caught up inside of.
??€?He definitely has something going on there,??€? he continues later on, ??€?and it was exploited beautifully by the people around him. He??€�s caught up in that. People will always excuse what they??€�re doing for the amount of money they??€�re making off of it. But then it??€�s hard for people [like me] to criticize someone who??€�s making so much money because that makes them look like they??€�re jealous or something.??€?
As he??€�s quick to stress throughout his discussion of Eminem, Francis is satisfied with his own little slice of domestic bliss, counting himself a happy homeowner who??€�s been living together with his girlfriend (who makes a cameo on ??€?Sea Lion??€?) for over a year now.
While Slim Shady wastes his time on silly beefs and throwaway radio singles, Sage has more pragmatic concerns on his mind, like figuring out which songs to import on his newly-purchased iPod. More than most anyone else who??€�s had to whittle their CD collection down to 4 gigabytes, the iPod game has proven especially hard on this particular packrat.
??€?I??€�ve been importing my whole collection into my hard drive, trying to organize my life a little bit,??€? he says. ??€?It??€�s been crazy. I went through my entire music catalogue and I really had to assess what it is that I enjoy and why and what??€�s worth importing into my computer. It??€�s like shedding skin.??€?
In fact, for all our focus on Sage??€�s archival appetites, the man??€�s career proves that he can recall the past without ever being beholden to it. That??€�s the theme of A Healthy Distrust??€�s ??€?Escape Artist,??€? a metaphorical assessment of his chameleon-like tendencies.
??€?Being that I was involved in battle raps for a long time,??€? he starts, ??€?people wanted to contain me in that little ring of punchlines and mother disses. Eventually, I had to get out of there.
??€?Then it was the same thing with the poetry world,??€? he continues. ??€?I was doing poetry slams but my material exceeded the confines of what slam poetry is. So I had to get out that, too.
??€?This is what it comes down to: for an artist to have longevity, they have to recognize what those boxes are when they??€�re inside them and how to get out of them and move on.??€?
You can only know where you??€�re headed if you know where you??€�ve been. If there??€�s any truth in that saying, Sage Francis is so far ahead of the game he just might lap himself.
??€?I??€�m just a packrat of life. I document my existence and keep everything that represents an aspect of my life that I thought was important. Eventually, it all makes it into my art.??€?
??€?With every track I write, I go back through my mental files and incorporate some older idea. That gives me perspective on where I??€�ve been and what I??€�d like to do now.
) , ground control . . . ce mai . . . defapt toate sunt super tari . . . e super ok tipu' abia astept urmatorul album !
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