SAGE FRANCIS
Born Paul Francis in 1977 in Miami, FL, Sage Francis spent most of his youth in Providence, RI. Interested in the poetic side of rap, Francis has been rhyming since age eight, later winning the Superbowl Battle in Boston in 1999 and the Scribble Jam in Cincinnati in 2000 and 2001 (the last under the name of his "metal" alter ego, Xaul Zan). After graduating from Dean College in Massachusetts with an A.A. in communications and from the University of Rhode Island-Kingston with a B.A. in journalism (where he started the now-defunct group Art Official Intelligence), Francis worked on releasing his solo records. Always an outspoken and political rapper and a strict vegetarian, he started the Sick Of series in 2000 on his independent Strange Famous Records with Still Sick...Urine Trouble, and continued with Sick of Waiting Tables (2001), Sick of Waging War (from 2002, and containing the single "Makeshift Patriot," recorded exactly one month after the September 11 attacks on New York), and Sickly Business (2004). He also released one album on Anticon in 2002, Personal Journals, and was signed in 2004 as the first rap artist on Epitaph Records, which issued his highly anticipated A Healthy Distrust in 2005. Two years later he was working with composer/trumpeter Mark Isham on the soundtrack for Pride and Glory starring Edward Norton. Two tracks from these session ended up on Francis' own 2007 full-length, Human the Death Dance. Sage Francis is one half of the Non-Prophets (Joe Beats is the producer and DJ), who first recorded the 12" Drop Bass/Bounce/I Keep Calling on their friend's Emerge Records in 1999. A full-length album on Lax Records, Hope, came out in 2004. Marisa Brown, All Music Guide
When I first got into magic it was an underground phenomenon
Now everybody's like pick a card, any card
If I shot my full load with the first hand I played
I'd be a monkey in a box
Hangin' with the David Blaines
I'd be swimming with the sharks
Smiles full of razor blades
But I'm not
I got outta that game
Escape Artist
I talked till I'm red in my face
With strange califs
I rocked till I'm outta my range
Then raised octaves
I played through the pain
And remained conscious
Refraining from commenting on the lame compliments
And the petty criticisms from those who ain't accomplished
Even one-fifths of some of this shit
I made progress with
I'm leavin' naysayers stumped like rain forests
After years of pullin' rabbit ears out my pants pockets
I'm not revealing any tricks of the trade
Its just there ain't no magic in the break down baby
In an effort to make them more secret I find in my life I decided to give them a look
Now I'm givin' them a glimpse and I guess I'm sittin' in the middle of an unread book
Letters are falling apart but the sentencess end and run of the wording is permanent
Never been missed
Suckers been missed
What did you miss
Interpreted is
Funny I'm serving the sentence of solitary confinement
Results in a death sentence and still I'm a running assignment
I'm just wondering where my time went
It pulled a disappearing act
And every single assistant I ever had got stored in half
Cause see I never payed attention but I can't afford to laugh (word?)
Cause I'm lookin' through my book
And an autograph from my cats (Ok)
And I'm short on staff
So all I ask is volunteers from the crowd
Show a little bit of audience participation now!
When I say hip (what do I say)
You, you say shut the fuck up we ain't sayin' shit
And I'll respect it (yes!)
Check it
In a flair for the dramatic exit
A fashoinable entrance late to my own arraignment
(Oh) The self-destructive things that I do for entertainment
My folks gave me this art
You're broken heart is my pallet
While I was out honin' my craft
You were disownin' your talent
Cause while you still live at home
And I bought this house off my parents (uhh)
I'm gettin' ahead of myself (I'm gettin' ahead of myself)
I see the hair on my back (I see the hair on my back)
I'm On the Road reading Kerouac
His poems versus better raps
I think to myself (I think to myself)
What's worth remembering
Versus defending
The size of my manhood
Or confessional canned goods
In an effort to make them more secret I find in my life I decided to give them a look
Now I'm givin' them a glimpse and I guess I'm sittin' in the middle of an unread book
Letters are falling apart but the sentencess end and run of the wording is permanent
Never been missed
Suckers been missed
What did you miss
Interpreted is
But none of this is gettin' told in confidence I reckon
I spin confidential records just to hold the listeners attention
I'm a veteran of spacial relationships
I clip your wings to fit you in
Headshrinking magician
Shapeshifting reptilian
Turned body contortionist
Orphanages started offering tortures to abortion clinics (abortion clinics)
I lost aquantances
And a morgue of lady friends
I gender bent the heaven sent angelic devil boy
Good Gods adrogenous
I'm lookin' marvelous
But looks can kill
And they're unsure about my sexual orientation still
Put me in a special kind of case that only breaks if
You hit it with a bouqet of flowers and baby breath arrangement
The vault is vacant
And they're all looking for phone call blame
I called my agent
The moment that I caught the train
I let him know that I'm goin' nowhere
He's invited
If he leaves tonight then he might just help me find it
But this is my burden to bear
Not his
And I'm a psychic without a sidekick
Holding the future hostage
A loose cannon standing on the rooftop with
A new respect and understanding of bartenders and locksmiths
They call me daredevil
But I'm not precise enough
Unprofessional
On an amature level
I love my life too much
Escape Artist
I'm in two places at once
Escape Artist
But I ain't slept in months
Escape Artist
Just tryin' to get away
But there ain't no magic in the breakdown baby
Ain't no magic in the breakdown baby
No magic in the break
I was sweet on her
She was sweet on Jesus
We slept with a blanket barrier between us
Master of her craft, I had her laughin like hyenas
When I asked her if she'd marry an elitist
Staggering genius in lace
With the grace of a drunken monk
The mask isn't seamless cause her face says something's up
But I don't dare ask her I just listen
Switchin to my good ear and adjusting my position
As she discusses Ginsberg I listened and learned
As she dispersed his words I just resisted the urge to do like he would
Whatever he wanted, if she allowed me to
She dangled that carrot then asked me:
"What would Bukowski do?"
Oh don't go there
He'd make you his mom and then completely lie about it in a book later on
Spirits were lifted when she whispered something French in my ear
Tension was there
When I responded in English it sounded less sincere
The sex in the air couldn't be left alone
So welcome to the Terrordome
A bedroom full of pheromones
Where nothing that we say is set in stone
If I thought it was for posterity I'd already be writing better poems
But I'm talking in extremes
Best this and best that
Best not regret anything that ever gets said to this hell cat
Creepin on all fours
Ready for combat
With secretive wars sneaking her claws in our contract
Bending every which way but loose with no proof that anything that we've suggested to this day is the whole truth
I heard her chemical romance was a medical slowdance
Said my advance was sexual
Held my genitals with cold hands
Set up the Coke cans
Broke out the Red Ryder
Then one by one I tried to knock down everything that's dead inside her
She used to treat street dividers like a balance beam
Arms spread wider than the legs in her dad's magazine
Re-enacting the pages that she got trapped between
I used it for kindling and then spilled the gasoline
Now I'm your water boy
I fetch it from your cheeks just like tennis balls
Smell the stench of your weakness on the bedroom walls
Somebody careless let em vaporize
"Who let these fall to the floor from your poor vacant eyes?"
Disintegrate
This ain't a great first impression
But I work better on pages, they say words are my profession
Let me spell it out in simple language
Plain English
I want your suicide to be a book of mine that I never finish
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