Growing Pains With Sage Francis

By Fringe Staff

By Danny Bernardini

Photo: Glenn Fuentes

While growing up in Rhode Island, Sage Francis never really let his parents know how much he yearned for hip hop music. He secretly recorded his flows on tape, only letting his folks in on his love a few times, including a trip to a Run DMC, EPMD and Public Enemy concert and a mother’s day rap he gave to his mom as a present.

It wasn’t because he was embarrassed, but rather he didn’t want them to use his love of the budding music as leverage for punishment.

Take away T.V.; no problem. Ground him from going out skateboarding; no big deal since he lived at the end of a dirt road with no friends around. But don’t touch his “Raisin’ Hell” album. “I kept it really private. They knew my passion for hip hop, I couldn’t hide that,” Francis said.

“That wasn’t for my parents. I didn’t want them to use hip hop against me. I kept it all to myself.”

“I’m a writer first and foremost. A lot of those cats aren’t so good at writing. That’s why they get stuck when it comes to making a song.”

Well, Francis is a long way from Providence now, and his parents well-aware of skills. Currently locked into a U.S. tour fresh off the May release of his second Epitaph album “Human the Death Dance,” Francis talked with Fringe before his second consecutive show at the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco. This night, he was dressed in black Dickies pants and shirt accented by a brown Kangol over his shaved balding head, just above his graying beard. With his stocky frame and common looks, he looks part cab driver, part pizza delivery guy plucked from the streets of New York City. So much so, the bevy of fans wearing his shirts and beanies walk right passed the underground icon during the interview just outside the venue.

Photo: Glenn Fuentes

A few hours later, the same kids were rushing the stage to get hand slaps and nods from the former freestyle champion and poet. Francis wasn’t always just an emcee. He started out writing rhymes and eventually started entering freestyle competitions. It wasn’t long until he held titles from Scribble Jam and Super Bowl battle and started burning his music and hawking bootlegs in the North-East. It was there he encountered the “midgets” he refers to on his latest album. While many could flow, few could transcend to writing or cutting an album “I’m a writer first and foremost. A lot of those cats aren’t so good at writing. That’s why they get stuck when it comes to making a song,” he said. “I would have been just another flavor of the month without any follow through. I never relied on cheesy punch lines. I never relied on trends to get over. I was waiting. I was hungry.”

That hunger and skill carried over to his albums. Topics from relationships to politics anchor much of his recordings.

Anger, desperation and knowledge are offered as answers to America’s questions about infidelity, terrorism and Hurricane Katrinal. Francis said his albums are a release for his emotions. “I’m a pretty passionate dude,” he said. “I subdue a lot of that. I don’t walk around telling everyone my life story. I save it for when I sit down to write. It’s it own little world I like to be a part of.”

Sage Francis will be performing at “Rock The Bells” in San Francisco on August 18.