3 A.M.
Matthew Harrison
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The sage : just don't call him emo
photo: Anthony St. James
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This week I feel claustrophobic. Too much to talk about and not enough room, added to which the subject of this week's column is from Rhode Island, a dinky little state clinging to the eastern shore of New England. Not exactly a place you'd expect to find an underground rap/spoken word sage. Influenced early on by a Run DMC/Public Enemy concert, Sage Francis has adopted a similar style. His debut album on Epitaph records, A Healthy Distrust, draws heavily on the aggressive socio-political agitation synonymous with Chuck D. It also combines spitfire beats and frantic tempos with an emotional melodic quality that has caused critics to dub him as emo-hip-hop.
"Emo is such a funny term. Damn the emotional! I prefer nerd-hop over emo, but they can call me whatever they want. When people use those terms it says more about them than me. Emo, nerd, backpacker, poet, rapper, faggot, genius, whore, poppa smurf... words," he told 3am in a recent interview.
Armed with Boston's 1999 Superbowl MC Battle and 2000 Scribble Jam freestyle champ titles, degrees in communications and journalism, and a DIY business sense (he's helping to develop a search engine that links products to a company's business record: www.knowmore.org), Francis is truly a formidable juggernaut.
He plays at Babylon Monday April 25, at 9:30 p.m., with Mr. Dibbs, Skratch Bastid (new album released on April 5), Pip Skid and John Smith, Awaken,
Periodic Trends and Illo. $14 adv.XXX
Don't miss another crafting session of Spins and Needles on Thursday April 21 (tonight), at the Clock Tower Brew Pub in the Glebe at 8 p.m. $4.Finally, borrowing from the DMC idea, the first Iron DJ Battle happens this week at Aqua Lounge (212 Rideau Street) on Friday April 22, at 10 p.m. The idea is to pitch new DJs (this month General Mayhem and Phunktokta) against the top local DJs in their genre. $5.
3am@ottawaxpress.ca
