Bushwhacker

As Americans scratch their heads, lick their wounds and brace themselves for another four years of Republican domination, many are left wondering why hip-hop has remained largely absent from current political discourse. While the genre's relationship with two-party politics has been iffy at best, hip-hop has long been considered the most effective medium at addressing America's social and cultural woes. After all, it is the cultural movement that gave us the world's first (and probably last) fully codified revolutionary pop group, Public Enemy, the fiery black militantism of X-Clan, and the unrelenting, riotous rage of early Ice Cube. But aside from some crafty sloganeering from P. Diddy and a rarely seen, get-out-the-vote Eminem video, popular hip-hop has largely decided to sit this one out.

Much of hip-hop's political apathy can be traced to a squeamish record industry that would prefer to lull listeners into complacent consumerism rather than confront them with the harsh realities of an increasingly dangerous world. But beneath the Clear Channel-approved artists and their glossy "106 & Park" videos are signs that rage still simmers. One of the underground's most fervent activists, Rhode Island's Sage Francis is to hip-hop what John McCain is to the Republicans: a stranger in his own party. In a genre beset by hyper-masculine leaps of bravado, Francis has managed to eke out material that is deeply personal, displaying an inward vulnerability and emotional nuance that is alien to the mainstream. His 2002 debut, Personal Journals, landed on many year-end top 40 lists with its mixture of confessional lyrics and scathing polemics (including his renowned attack on neo-nationalism, "Makeshift Patriot").

His latest album, the recently released A Healthy Distrust, is similarly pointed. On the complex "Slow Down Gandhi," Francis raps, "Underdogs in Wonderbras in a push-up contest/All for the sake of military recruitment/it felt like Kent State the way they targeted the students."

Francis turns his gaze inward and needles the intent and commitment of so-called revolutionaries when he rhymes, "When push turns to shove, you jump into your forefather's arms/He's a banker, you're part of the system/off go the dreadlocks, in comes the income."

"I definitely don't want to encourage apathy or cynicism to any degree," Sage said over e-mail, "but I do want people to check themselves and come to terms with whether they truly believe in making a change or not. People are all about lazy revolutions. They can say 'Fuck Bush' and feel good about it, but for some reason, they are not prompted to do the kind of things that will actually fuck Bush."

Francis finds alienation in political isolation. Time will tell which is the most effective method of approaching politics, but for now we should be happy that there are voices bringing hip-hop back to its revolutionary roots, and away from the materialist MTV/Clear Channel echo chamber.

music@creativeloafing.com