Francis was born in Miami, Florida, but grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. He is an only child and grew up for most of his childhood with his mother and stepfather after his parents divorced when he was young. He lived in different parts of Rhode Island including North Smithfield and Woonsocket. His mom worked as a bartender and his stepfather worked as a locksmith.[1]
Francis began writing and recording original lyrics at age 8, being inspired by acts such as Run DMC and Public Enemy.[4][5] According to Artistdirect, Francis began sneaking out of his parents' house at age 12 to participate in rap battles.[6]
In 2001, the song "Makeshift Patriot," recorded on October 11, 2001, became an Internet hit for its critique of American media during and immediately following the September 11 attacks.[12] Francis considers "Makeshift Patriot" to be the song that really made things come together for him. It was on the 2002 mix tape, The Known Unsoldier – Sick Of Waging War... and was widely circulated for free.[13]
He released the critically acclaimed first solo album Personal Journals in 2002. The record Hope, his only album with Joe Beats released under the name Non-Prophets, was named after the state of Rhode Island's motto of hope, and was meant to be very Rhode Island-centric.[13]
Francis has described A Healthy Distrust as being a political record, which reflected his mistrust of government and big business with a focus on socio-political matters.[13]
In 2014, Francis released Copper Gone after a four-year break from touring.[18][19] The album was named after the phenomenon Francis saw in his neighborhood where abandoned buildings would have their copper pipes stripped to be sold, and then tagged as "Copper Gone" to let others know that there was no copper left to steal.[13]
Francis says that he has been releasing mix tapes consistently since 1999, and will continue to release the Sick of... mix tape series on an ongoing basis.[13]
Francis collaborated with B. Dolan under the name Epic Beard Men. The duo's official debut single, "War on Christmas", was released in 2017.[21] In 2018, the duo released the Season 1 EP,[22] as well as "Five Hearts", a single from the EP.[23] In 2019, the duo released the first studio album, This Was Supposed to Be Fun.[24] It includes "You Can't Tell Me Shit", which became The Stranger's "Inbox Jukebox Track of the Day".[25] The album was placed at number 20 on PopMatters' "20 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2019" list.[26]
Francis is the founder and CEO of the independent hip hop record label Strange Famous Records. The label first began in 1996 as a way for him to release his previously unreleased songs in the late 1990s. It has since evolved into an official enterprise with an expanding roster of like-minded artists. He released several Sick Of mixtapes available on his website.[12]
Social activism
Francis worked with fellow rapper B. Dolan who had the idea to start an organization and website named KnowMore.org aka KnowMore: The People's Corporation Watch Project which focused on connecting consumers with social responsibility information about corporations and responsible consumerism.[4]
Francis went to South Africa to work on solutions to AIDS in South Africa, especially in regards to children. As part of that effort he was part of a documentary on HIV in South Africa.[27]
Other work
Francis is also part of the contemporary spoken word movement. His relationship with the Providence poetry slam community (he was on their 1998, 1999 and 2002 national poetry slam teams)[28] led to it being called "The House that Sage Francis Built."[29] From 2000 to 2002, he also DJ-ed for the NYC-Urbana poetry slam, a weekly slam series held at the legendary punk rock venue CBGB.[29]
^Esoteric; Francis, Sage (1999). "Esoteric vs. Sage Francis"(Video). Superbowl MC Battle. Archived from the original on 2019-05-16. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
