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Show Your independent student source for music, film and the arts Sage Francis to bring' the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to In The Venue tonight Dan Fletcher ASST. REDUX EDITOR It's five nights into a 41-day U.S. tour. You've been packed into a van with faulty brakes and dysfunctional air-conditioning. After recuperating from a sparsely attended show at Long Island's Crazy Donkey, this is how Sage Francis finds himself alongside close friends at a local carnival, having what he can only describe as "just a whole bunch of fun." This is the hip-hop hothead's modus operandi. Pour your heart into a new record. Get in the van. ^pit your bullets anywhere and everywhere possible. And never forget that in the end, through good or bad, it's really all about "having fun with your friends." Paul "Sage" Francis holds degrees in communication and journalism, runs his own record label called Strange Famous, maintains the anticorporation information database fcnowmore.org, and just completed work on the soundtrack of a gritty, copflick drama dubbed "Pride & Glory," starring Colin Farrell and Edward Norton. In what little free time he maintains, Sage has managed to craft three of this decade's most sonically and socially relevant underground hip-hop releases: 2002*5 Personal Jour- " A s hip-hop gets older and the fans stay young, it becomes a history lesson— something that needs to be learned about. I do what I can to tip my hat to the people who influenced me and inspired me." impact of the underground, Sage stands as the epitome of its subversive fight. Discussing this battle before taking stage at Philadelphia's Torcadero, Sage admitted, "Sometimes people make art just to create their own world, to get away from the daily stresses. I'm not that kind of cat. Everything I experience goes down on the page, and I do my best to connect with people out there and hope they can do the same to me. It's an extended dialogue that I have with the world." Sage's latest statement, Human The Death Dance, lays an old-school swagger a la early hip-hop heroes Public Enemy and KRS-One atop trademark nals, 2OO5's A Healthy Disgust yearnings for sonic and social and 2007's Human The Death progressiveness. Dance. This thirst—the same one Sage's hip-hop roots reach that saw a young Paul Franmuch deeper than the new cis scouring tape racks and millennium, though. Born attending Run DMC shows in Miami, Fla., and raised in with his mother back in Providence, R.I., the young was the initial inspiration for emcee's course was set on one Sage's revolutionary-minded fateful fourth grade school record label, Strange Famous day when a friend loaned him Records. his first Fat Boys tape. "Strange Famous focuses "When I came up, I had such on artists who are set apart an intense love for hip-hop be- from the pack—who have cause almost all the hip-hop something great or special to that was out was great," Sage say," Sage said. "I need my lasaid with the impassioned bel to be a stamp of approval, nostalgia of a war veteran. as far as this cat is not selling The golden era of hip-hop his art out to Nike at the first instilled the up-and-coming chance." artist with an unquenchable As if it's not noble enough thirst for anything hip-hop— to call out modern rappers for even though it was not the seeing the soundtracking of a most prevalent subculture in Nike commercial as a career rural New England. pinnacle, Sage refuses to simAllowance was saved for ply scratch the surface of our weekly raids on record store corporate culture. cassette racks, searching for "There's this mysticism tapes with gold chains on the where people spend money cover. Bedtimes were pushed and think it just disappears back to tape late-night radio into nowhere," he said. "But it shows. 'To! MTV Raps" dom- feeds into power." inated TV time. Demos were Sage and close friend Brenrecorded. Rap battles were dan Dolan established knowfought and won (most notably more.org in 2000 for this very 1999's Superbowl Battle and reason. 2000's Scribble Jam ChampiKnowmore.org provides onship). profiles of the environmental, Eventually, Paul's years humanitarian and social pros spent collecting sage wisdom and cons of the corporations sired Sage Francis. we support on a daily basis. c Each battle fought has honed "The purpose is to educate the now-30-year-old emcee's consumers and give them acworld-wise perspective. cess to information on what •"As hip-hop gets older and kind of companies they're the fans stay young, it becomes feeding their money into," said a history lesson—something Sage. "It's tough for people to that needs to be learned about," actually realize that what they Francis said of his efforts to in- purchase has an affect on othform a new generation of hip- er things." &6p heads on their own roots. In the past, Dolan and Sage "Ido what I can to tip my hat to have pulled the cards of Bayer the people who influenced me for its participation in the hoand inspired me." locaust, Nestle for misleadVThis dedication to tradition ing marketing campaigns that is'apparent in each of Sage's lead to infant death in Third ferideavors, but he maintains World countries and Colgate one consistent resolve: to keep for its environmental and anihip-hop real. mal abuse. • "Hip-hop has been exploit* Knowmore.org is currently ed to such a degree—these assembling profiles for the ensongs about money and girls tire Fortune 500. have blown up way too big," Sage's ultimate goal is to edSage vented. "There's noth- ucate through entertainment. ing balancing that except the That goal is made clear in the underground, and still the rhymes he spits, the records underground isn't bringing he releases and each and evanything strong enough to ery dollar he spends—whethcombat it." er it's on carnival rides with Francis radiates a certain friends or grassroots political sense of humility in his con- campaigns. cern for hip-hop's longevity. d.fletcher@ But while he worries for the chronicle.utah.edu If you go What: Sage Francis in concert When:Thursday,June 28,7 p.m Where: In The venue (579 W. 200 South) Hip-hop with heart |