The idea that Sage Francis purposely stopped making music for hardcore hip-hop fans never occurred to me. Link
GC: Many of your fans aren’t hip-hop fans per se, thanks in part to you being featured on Punk-O-Rama Vol. 8; they just like what you do. Are you happy with that or would you prefer having actual hip-hop fans following what you do?
SF: Most of my fans used to be hardcore hip-hop fans. I stopped pandering to that crowd and decided to do stuff that was more challenging to that type of audience. What happened was I lost a segment of the hardcore hip-hop crowd and allowed other people to have access to my art and experience. I definitely like having hip-hop fans at my shows, but if I only had hip-hop fans enjoying my material I’d feel really insecure about my art. I’d wonder why people outside of my chosen genre couldn’t enjoy or identify with the humanity in what I do. Then I’d probably assume that the only reason that hip-hop kids enjoy my material (and no one else) is because I pander to them. I’ve been lucky though. I do what I want to do, and I have all walks of life coming to my shows expressing their appreciation for what I do. Black, white, Asian, Native American, Mexican, young, old, Christian, Muslim, atheist, men and women. I hold their hand and I say yes. I just say yes. They look me in the eye and they say yes as well. It’s a yes-fest.
the sage finally seems to be living up to his name.very holy of him.
pretty soon he’ll invite his fans to a remote part of french guyana and start stock piling weapons and kool-aid…”i hold their hand and say ‘yes’ “…oh jesus.
whether or not you make quality hip hop music may have little to do with the types of fans that accept you or flock to your shows…but …if you want acceptance and credibility from everyone,you could do worse than being as upbeat,happy,and artistic as possible. once you start wanting every person to like your music…all the rebel goes out of your yell.
Sorta off topic, but the one Sage show I went to the crowd wasn’t very live. He was putting a lot of work in, call and response, crowd interaction, etc. A lot of the stuff you’d expect at a Hip Hop show, just filtered through his lens. He really put on a great show. The crowd though was full of snobs and hipsters who were content to just stare at him performing and not get involved, not even to dance or anything. Maybe things have changed since then (this was in support of ‘A Healthy Distrust’) but the “non-Hardcore Hip Hop” fans weren’t doing him any favors.
ill always think of sage as being one of the better live performers in hip hop but as one of two asian sage francis fans (3 or 4 if count half-asian pav, and possibly beau sia) And ‘hardcore hip hop’ head, it makes me feel uncomfortable when certain cats kinda imply that theyve reached their plateau as for as creative possibilities in ‘hip hop’ or tradtional hip hop and somehow experimenting with other genres is some next level shit. In any case, thank god for records like bounce, slow down ghandi amd whore monger.
Yeah, I agree that Sage is one of the better live performers I’ve seen. However, I’d want to see a Buck 65 set more.
elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me…….
i guess we’ll always have the sick of waiting tapes