2008 Woodie Awards
Sound Check
Richa Agarwal
Issue date: 9/22/05 Section: Arts & Features
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Eminem may be the token white rapper in mainstream music, but the indie world is brimming with talented hip-hop artists from all backgrounds. Sage Francis, for example, is a white rapper whose is easily on par with Eminem's - if not above and beyond it. But apparently making homophobic and misogynistic remarks is more acceptable in our society than making unpatriotic or race-conscious statements. Francis himself is painfully aware of the corporatized industry, stating in the opening track, "Radio suckers never play this / scared shitless of dismissing clear channel playlists." In any case, Sage Francis may not be considered the most talented MC in the hip-hop underground, but he can certainly hold his rhymes.
His most recent album to date, A Healthy Distrust (Epitaph, 2005), talks about a lot - but you may not notice it if you're too busy bumping your head to the seductive beats and rhythmic perfection. His raps seem to flow naturally, when in fact Francis has carefully crafted them - using alliteration, assonance and other poetic devices to his advantage. For example, in the amazing "Escape Artist," Francis raps, "I'm a veteran of spacial relationships / I clip your wings to fit you in head shrinking magician / Shape-shifting reptilian turned-body contortionist / Orphanage just started off and tortures to abortion clinics / I lost acquaintances / And a morgue of lady friends / I gender bent the heavens light angelic devil boy with God's androgynous / I'm lookin' marvelous but looks can kill/ And I'm unsure about my sexual orientations still."
However, the arrangement of Sage Francis's words is most powerful when you take into account what he's actually saying. Those of a politically conservative bent may scoff, but for the rest of us, this album is indeed a soundtrack for the political nightmare we have found ourselves in. "Slow Down Gandhi" is easily the highlight of the album; referencing the politics of Kent State and the West Memphis Three; our healthcare, welfare, educational and judicial systems; classism; yellow ribbons and trustafundians (essentially an upper-class "bohemian"), Francis covers a lot of ground in this track. But what might speak more universally is the stanza "one love, one life, one too many victims / republicrat, democran, one party system / media goes in a frenzy / they're stripped of their credentials / presidential candidates can't debate over this instrumental / let 'em freestyle, winner takes all / when the music's dead, I'll have Ted Nugent's head hangin' on my wall / kill one of ours, we'll kill one of yours / with some friendly fire, that's a funny term, like civil war."
The album opens with the powerful "The Buzz Kill," which opens with a man stating, "You are listening to the heartbeat of the Sage." It is indeed telling to think of this fast-paced track as relating to something more personal and intrinsic to the narrator - the symbolic lifeline itself.
Tracks like "Sea Lion" and "Agony In Her Body" showcase a more emotionally vulnerable Francis. You will find that this album boasts incredible diversity, from subject matter to sound, and Francis also manages to throw in bits of humor. At the end of "Sun Vs. Moon," for example, there is an unrelated dialogue between him and another man that ends with "No, this isn't the lollipop factory, why?" "Because y'all are a bunch of suckers, ha, ha!" It may not be the kind of joke you tell at a party (or ever), but its random placement after the discussion of God, the Devil, the fallacies of religion
His most recent album to date, A Healthy Distrust (Epitaph, 2005), talks about a lot - but you may not notice it if you're too busy bumping your head to the seductive beats and rhythmic perfection. His raps seem to flow naturally, when in fact Francis has carefully crafted them - using alliteration, assonance and other poetic devices to his advantage. For example, in the amazing "Escape Artist," Francis raps, "I'm a veteran of spacial relationships / I clip your wings to fit you in head shrinking magician / Shape-shifting reptilian turned-body contortionist / Orphanage just started off and tortures to abortion clinics / I lost acquaintances / And a morgue of lady friends / I gender bent the heavens light angelic devil boy with God's androgynous / I'm lookin' marvelous but looks can kill/ And I'm unsure about my sexual orientations still."
However, the arrangement of Sage Francis's words is most powerful when you take into account what he's actually saying. Those of a politically conservative bent may scoff, but for the rest of us, this album is indeed a soundtrack for the political nightmare we have found ourselves in. "Slow Down Gandhi" is easily the highlight of the album; referencing the politics of Kent State and the West Memphis Three; our healthcare, welfare, educational and judicial systems; classism; yellow ribbons and trustafundians (essentially an upper-class "bohemian"), Francis covers a lot of ground in this track. But what might speak more universally is the stanza "one love, one life, one too many victims / republicrat, democran, one party system / media goes in a frenzy / they're stripped of their credentials / presidential candidates can't debate over this instrumental / let 'em freestyle, winner takes all / when the music's dead, I'll have Ted Nugent's head hangin' on my wall / kill one of ours, we'll kill one of yours / with some friendly fire, that's a funny term, like civil war."
The album opens with the powerful "The Buzz Kill," which opens with a man stating, "You are listening to the heartbeat of the Sage." It is indeed telling to think of this fast-paced track as relating to something more personal and intrinsic to the narrator - the symbolic lifeline itself.
Tracks like "Sea Lion" and "Agony In Her Body" showcase a more emotionally vulnerable Francis. You will find that this album boasts incredible diversity, from subject matter to sound, and Francis also manages to throw in bits of humor. At the end of "Sun Vs. Moon," for example, there is an unrelated dialogue between him and another man that ends with "No, this isn't the lollipop factory, why?" "Because y'all are a bunch of suckers, ha, ha!" It may not be the kind of joke you tell at a party (or ever), but its random placement after the discussion of God, the Devil, the fallacies of religion