SONG OF THE DAY: "The Best of Times" by Sage Francis

From time to time, I will set a theme for a series of SotDs that can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how much material I wish to cover. This week's theme will be rap songs!

RAP WEEK SONG #6!

Sage Francis is another rapper I found by way of punk music. He was one of the non-punk artists signed by the legendary Epitaph Records when the label began diversifying in the early- to mid-2000s. Francis has always been a very political rapper, especially so during the early years of his career. In fact, he first began gaining notoriety after releasing the song "Makeshift Patriot" a month after 9/11/2001. I did not hear of him until years later, when he lent a verse to the Bad Religion song "Let Them Eat War" on 2004's The Empire Strikes First (Bad Religion is a similarly political punk band whose guitarist, Brett Gurewitz, founded Epitaph).

After being extremely prolific from 2002 to 2007, Francis has since only released one album and two mixtapes, though he has another album due out this year. Prior to experimenting with rap, Francis was primarily a spoken word artist, well-known in the poetry slam community. This experience has given a distinct style to his rapping, one that is less based on beats and flow, choosing to highlight the mood of the song and the weight of each word instead. This decidedly anti-mainstream approach has earned him a lot of respect and acclaim in the alternative rap, indie, and punk scenes (this also is likely due in part to his association with Epitaph Records).

"The Best of Times" closes out his most recent album, "Li(f)e," and serves as a nice, personal end-piece to the record, showing off his more introspective side as well as his spoken word style. There was a point in time during which I listened almost exclusively to this song and P.O.S.'s "Optimist." The song is a long, drawn-out examination of his life thus far, beginning in grade school. He examines each stage of his life, what the world looked like at that point, and how he regards that time of his life now that his perspective has changed. It is chock-full of solid, heartfelt lyrics without going so far as to be overly sentimental, and the general crescendo of the song is golden. Check it out below!