Just do it Grinding it out with Sage Francis and Joey Beats BY BOB GULLA

Local homie Paul Francis remembers rapping since his sugary cereal days, when he first checked out a Fat Boys tape around the age of five or six. By the time he reached 12 in the early ’90s, the Woonsocket native began rapping in earnest, winning his first contest at a club in Johnston. Something told him that night, when he fell asleep clutching the winning prize — an autographed T-shirt — that he’d decided his fate. A future as a hip-hop performer was in the offing.

Since then, Sage (his stage name) has rapped his way to prominence, courtesy of witty, provocative, and occasionally brilliant lyrics, excellent beats, and an undying dedication to the art. He successfully rapped his way out of Rhode Island in search of an audience.

Expanding his view of the hip-hop scene, Sage saw the doors of success open for him. His writing and rapping have won him a couple of prestigious freestyle battle championships and a few poetry slam titles. His spoken word pieces have been featured in X-Games commercials on ESPN and ABC. He has also toured the country twice, and distributes his own CDs and cassettes.

Sage’s commitment to the genre has not gone unnoticed in the hip-hop underground, where he has built a considerable cult following. His latest effort, Personal Journals, is out now on the hip Anticon label. With the able help of hythm master Joey Beats, he is currently in the midst of another national tour, drawing about a 1000 people in almost every metro area in the US.

" Great people aren’t born through handouts, and don’t kiss ass to get to the top. Real people know that the top is the bottom, " Sage Francis’s bio says. " He is an artist with an indescribably convincing and honest quality in his work, so describing the music doesn’t help. " He is inextricably entwined with his work, the sign of a genuine artist and the signature of a man who truly believes the poetry that tumbles out of his mouth. We caught up with Sage and Joey last week.

Q: How has the tour been going?

Sage Francis: There have been a lot of ups and downs, but overall this tour has been extremely successful. I can’t complain. A majority of the shows have been sold out, and the crowds have been responsive.

Joey Beats: It’s my first time out on the road, so it’s all good to me. I’m having a blast. I’ve waited a long time for this so I’m very appreciative — savoring every second. It’s fun to be at the party every night in a different city, that’s how I look at it.

Q: What’s it been like to tour this extensively?

Sage Francis: Draining. We’ve been traveling the country for over a month now, playing in 35 cities. It taxes the mind, body, and soul. I am laying in a hotel bed right now reconsidering my future. Well, reconsidering my present too! Big changes are about to take place and I’ve been having some frightening realizations. It’s not difficult for me to make my situation work in this moment in this world, and I feel privileged for that, but the end result is the same as anyone else’s. We are all living disgusting and outdated lives. It feels that way. Old. It feels old and outdated. How does one get beyond that without dying? From this perspective, I can see that we’re fighting silly battles. And they all feel so important. We’re little clown monkeys doing our little dance. We laugh still. Keep laughin’, monkey.

Q: What kind of audience have you developed outside of Providence?

Sage Francis: The same kind of audience I have acquired inside of Providence. It is an eclectic fan base — people from all different music genres. Thankfully, there is a large female contingent, which you don’t often see at underground hip-hop shows.

I’m not really keen on being an opportunist and exploiting my local scene for press and support, so I am actually more well-known in most places outside of Providence. Rhode Island is my home and I need it to be a place of comfort and familiarity. There’s no reason people in my home should feel like I am blaring my music life at them. We have better times walking the streets unknown, and when I meet friends of friends I want it to be with a fresh slate.

Q: Are you surprised by your success?

Sage Francis: I suppose I should be, because I never played the game in a conventional way. But, no, I’m not. All I know is that I worked incredibly hard and I feel relieved that it’s all paid off.

Q: Is your former band, Non-Prophets, still viable? Or have you left it behind?

Sage Francis: I have worked with a couple bands. All of them are defunct. I am still looking for the magic combination of people.

Q: Joey, has your role in the band changed since you went away from the Non-Prophets idea?

Joey Beats: Yes and no. [At the opening of the show] I’m on the drum machine. I think that’s very important because I’m a producer more than I ever claimed to be a DJ. My DJ skills are not up to par to be performing live with. However, Sage was gracious enough to incorporate me in the set so it worked out where I would play the drum machine for the first half and then be the hypeman for the second half. The hypeman stuff is fun as hell. It took me a while to get used to it and I definitely still have a lot to learn, but I think I’m doing a good enough job.

Q: Has your sound changed and evolved?

Joey Beats: Yes. Every musician moves to the left or right as time goes on; most mistake that for moving up or down in a progressive sense. But I don’t like to think of it as " evolving. " The implications of that word scare me and for me to feed into them wouldn’t feel right. But yeah, my sound is definitely changing. I have a lot of different ideas. As days go on, I’m less concerned with being traditional.

Q: What sounds inspire you?

Joey Beats: The low end. Nothing is complete until I hear a nice low end tie everything together. To me, the bass line is the soul. Groove ranks higher on the importance scale than melody. Although I would never abandon melody totally; it’s a close second. I really love the sound of a muffled, muddy, filtered bass line. It’s the best of both worlds.

Q: What was your experience on the Providence music scene?

Sage Francis: Well, obviously, I got my start in the Providence/Boston area. I saw all my hip-hop shows in those two cities, and I got to display my skill on those stages. I built my craft there. I was exposed to punk rock there. I battled for my rep in Providence. Eventually, the community began supporting my cause, although there are always people who doubt me or my abilities. But they fuel the fire and keep me operating outside of their boundaries. I like when people from my local community only hear of me outside of our state lines. That’s how you win the fight with them.

Q: Do you owe the scene part of your success?

Sage Francis: No. It probably comes across as arrogant for me to say that, but I can honestly say that I didn’t use the Providence scene as a launching pad. It is always a good place for me to return to and collect myself, but I wouldn’t be doing the hip-hop scene or poetry scene justice by saying that I owe part of my success to something that was incidental to my success.

Q: If you could change anything about the scene here in Providence, what would it be?

Sage Francis: I would change the general negative attitude people seem to have about the music business and how they feel they need to go about it. Whenever someone tries to tell me they’re doing really well, they start going on a diatribe about how many people they are working with and what labels are interested in them and blah blah blah. Homie, all I want to know is that you got your shit straight. Don’t confuse the issue by talking a bunch of nonsense. Shit is simple. I know this business inside and out. There’s no reason to talk about or believe that there’s a magic man behind the curtain working your life out for you somewhere.

Q: Final thoughts for aspiring hip-hoppers and beat poets from the area?

Joey Beats: Throw away your drawing board. Get your hands dirty. Dig. Stop talking. Do. Think outside Rhode Island. Practice. Stop looking for shortcuts. Grind it out. A wise man listens to the advice of everyone, but only a fool actually follows it.

Sage Francis: Humility is a key element in progressing as an artist, as a human. If I carried on as if I had it all figured out, I’d still be serving ice cream on Thayer Street. I never have it figured out, but the less people I have in my life trying to figure it out for me, the better off I am.

But, wait, what’s the moral here? Figure things out on your own whenever possible, that way you can’t blame your failure on others. When you take the brunt of your mistakes, you are less apt to let that shit happen again. Take control. Take responsibility. Allow room for others to make mistakes too. There’s a lot of growing up we need to do.

Sage Francis and Joey Beats will perform the last show of their current tour at 8 p.m. at Lupo’s At the Strand on Friday, March 19, with Grand Buffet and Mac Lethal. Call (401) 331-LUPO.