Sage Francis - Human The Death Dance (Epitaph / Anti)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
You can't say you weren't given any background. 'Human The Death Dance's opener 'Underground for Dummies' is not only the best track on the legendary underground hip hop MC's new album, but it's a frank history of Sage Francis straight from the horse's mouth - warts and all. It's an interesting and successful tactic, allowing you to feel like you're clued up on the back story for the duration of the rest of the album even if you're completely unfamiliar with his music.
With the little bit of extra history we've been party to, we can tell you that sonically if not lyrically, the sometime Non Prophets fella has calmed down a bit since the duo's last LP, the fantastic 'Hope'. The influences of and collaborations with the likes of some of hip hop's most forward thinking luminaries such as Buck 65 were an inspired touch, 'Civil Disobedience' coming across like a more amped up cut from Buck's own amazing 'Square' album. On it, Sage boasts invincibility, proving that he does occasionally obey some rap rules after all - such as rapping about how you're better than everyone else, for instance (hip hop boiled down to its essence?). Being fair, he is better, than most at least. Elsewhere, on 'High Step', he also boasts about how he's a much better basketball player than you are, which is fair enough - we're English, after all. 'Human The Death Dance', whatever it is, is certainly not an ego trip for the listener. You, and I, are scum.
Hip hop clichés like skits are all over the place, but otherwise it's a really interesting listen, removed from most stuff that drags mainstream hip hop towards the box marked boring. 'Midgets and Giants' is one of the most instantly rewarding things here, "a four song demo, and you got t shirts?! '8 Mile' wasn't true, shithead!", says Sage, offering his opinion on the scene. It's really rather catchy too, which helps him get his otherwise relatively miserable point across. Sonically its palette is a diverse one - sometimes there aren't even beats, only oppressive string plucking as on 'Good Fashion', and elsewhere 'Got Up This Morning's blues influence shows a wider scope than many from his background can claim.
'Waterline' forward however, and it all gets very dark, and little chinks of light become fewer and more far between. Losing itself in its own gloom a little, the finishing five or so tracks don't warrant much in the way of outlandish compliments, accomplished though they are. If it were a ten track album, which would have been a miracle in hip hop, it'd have finished on a high. As it is, despite the quality of the opening two thirds, it's difficult to assert that there is lasting and consistent quality to 'Human Death Dance'. But that's only because he set himself such a high standard at the start of the rekkid, however.
Maybe it's because he put all the longest, darkest, most impenetrable tracks together at the end to form their own kind of suite, rather than peppering the album with them, that it stalls a little bit toward the end. But that shouldn't dissuade you from taking a step away from the bravado of the hip hop mainstream towards the far more rewarding realm of the music made by Sage and his contemporaries - it's a lesson in both sound and sociology that he's offering. Pay attention.
Stream the whole of 'Human The Death Dance' HERE
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