[Rewind Review]- Sage Francis Li(f)e

This week I once again hit the dials on the Way-Back machine to bring the Internet another great gem from a time that is lost, its time for another awesome installment of the Rewind Review.

In a world filled with Little Wayne and Autotune it’s hard to find innovative and creative hip hop, that is why today I bring you the album Li(f)e by Sage Francis.

Florida Native, Sage Francis has always been a strong voice in the Underground Hip-Hop scene. Respected for his lyrical process and the raw rough emotional delivery, with his release of Li(f)e in 2010 he made something truly unique and separated him self from the rest of the artists in the underground and mainstream.

In this album Francis moved away from the traditional idea of production in Hip-Hop. There are no samples, turntable scratches, or drum machines. Instead Francis chose to work with bands such as Death Cab for cutie and Grizzly Bear to provide the backing for the album. Each track sounds more like it should be coming out of a Smokey New Orleans Blues club rather than in some big city basement.

By far the main draw of this album is Francis’ lyrical work. He perfectly straddles the line between spoken word and rap. On both Little Houdini and The Baby Stays his lyrics paint a tragic pictures that hit you right in the core. Each track on this album show cases his amazing word choice and wit that has made him a main stay in the underground and it’s hard to pick a few to call out because each word has been perfectly crafted and chosen for each song.

For anyone who says they are not a fan of rap music I would encourage them to pick up this album. This album is a great example of what rap could be deep creative and poetic. If you are a fan of the genre you will have to respect the MC work that Francis does and how he blends the blues and folk elements into this work. True that this is not an album that you would hear in a dance hall to get people on the floor but I promise you it is hard to find a more tragically beautiful album.

You can buy this album from Amazon.com.