More Sage Advice

Sage Francis is the guy you never want to drink with (not that he drinks anyway). He’s the know-it-all who will rant about the problems of the world, and the conversations always seem to end up being about Sage whether the problems affect him or not. Picture a drinking session like that, only with Sage speaking in extended metaphors over aggressive drum patterns, and you have A Healthy Distrust.Sage has always represented the woe-is-me side of indie hip-hop, yet he stands for much more. His sound has evolved from the sulkiness of Personal Journals to an angry, industrial boom-bap, but his music has never really been about the beats that carry him along. Sage Francis is a performer and his words are the main attraction; everything else is secondary.

The self-proclaimed “Bill O’Reilly of this rap shit” threatens to “Freedom kiss the French for their political dissent” in the opener “The Buzz Kill.” This Cliffs Notes version of the entire album also finds him emotionally “left for dead” by a lover “but Death didn’t want no sloppy seconds.”

Sage uses subsequent songs to nail down these recurring themes. He plays the lonely genius in tracks like “Bridle” and “Agony in Her Body.” For some good ol’ government/big business bashing, sample “Slow Down Gandhi.” If you want to hear him diss commercial rap, religion, and himself, there’s plenty of it on the rest of the album.

A Healthy Distrust documents and balances Sage’s emotional extremes. It casts him as the conscience of hip-hop’s Internet generation, reminding them of the world outside their computer screen.