21 Facts About Sage Francis

Paul William "Sage" Francis was born on November 18,1976 and is an American independent underground rapper from Providence, Rhode Island.

Sage Francis is the founder and CEO of Strange Famous Records.

Sage Francis 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.

Sage Francis lived in different parts of Rhode Island including North Smithfield and Woonsocket.

Sage Francis's mom worked as a bartender and his stepfather worked as a locksmith.

Sage Francis began writing and recording original lyrics at age 8, being inspired by acts such as Run DMC and Public Enemy.

Sage Francis received a degree in communications from Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts and a degree in journalism from the University of Rhode Island.

Sage Francis won the Superbowl MC Battle in Boston in 1999, beating Esoteric.

Sage Francis won the Scribble Jam emcee battle in 2000, beating Blueprint.

Sage Francis considers "Makeshift Patriot" to be the song that really made things come together for him.

Sage Francis released the critically acclaimed first solo album Personal Journals in 2002.

Sage Francis broke music genre barriers by getting signed to Epitaph Records, making himself the first hip hop artist to sign with the punk rock label.

Sage Francis released three albums with Epitaph: A Healthy Distrust, Human the Death Dance and Life.

Sage 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.

Life was a shift into a different style for Sage Francis, focusing on spoken word and indie rock.

Sage Francis made a guest appearance on Bad Religion's The Empire Strikes First, on the track "Let Them Eat War".

In 2014, Sage Francis released Copper Gone after a four-year break from touring.

The album was named after the phenomenon Sage 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.

Sage Francis is the founder and CEO of the independent hip hop record label Strange Famous Records.

Sage Francis released several Sick Of mixtapes available on his website.

Sage Francis went to South Africa to work on solutions to AIDS in South Africa, especially in regards to children.