Spearheading Hip-Hop

  MICHAEL MANTEL Franti is shown here
having a good time playing the Sno-Core Icicle Ball.

By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Walking slowly in bare feet, shorts and a T-shirt, Michael
Franti seemed unaware that his manager Pretty, a large man with
dreadlocks that reached down to his waist, was trying to hurry him
through a tight schedule that included travel, an interview and a
performance.

Franti, the frontman of the underground hip-hop group Spearhead,
stepped over a plastic fence into the performers-only area at
Saturday’s Whole Earth Festival and proceeded to join the
entourage that was waiting for him. After at first wandering away
in the wrong direction, he was finally led to the trailor that
acted as the band’s dressing room for his pre-show
interview.

Franti, a tall, unassuming man with long dreadlocks and brown
patterned tattoos on his legs, is the acclaimed artist whose
hip-hop lyrics have been both angry and upbeat, critical and
celebratory. His live shows are infused with a joyous air, as he
dances across the stage, plays guitar, sings and raps.

  JANA SUMMERS Michael Franti spins his
hip-hop messages with a positive demeanor and a smile.

“I believe that music is one of the healing arts,”
he said.

In the same spirit, he likes to mingle with the crowd for over
half an hour after each performance talking to his fans.

Just because Spearhead has a positive vibe doesn’t mean
that Franti is no longer socially conscious, however.

“I deal with world issues in my songs, so it doesn’t
make it less political,” Franti said. “It makes it more
powerful.”

As a songwriter, Franti has changed and developed since his
start in the late ’80s as a member of a performance group
called the Beatnigs. The group’s only album was political in
its message and heavily industrial in its sound.

A few years later he formed the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
with his partner, Rono Tse, from the Beatnigs. The duo again
released only one album before disbanding, and Franti reappeared
with Spearhead.

He says that one way in which his songs have changed is that
currently he is writing more songs in first person.

“I used to write songs about how the government sucks and
life sucks, and everything’s bullshit, which it is, but I try
to write songs now that are from personal experience, that are
metaphors for the way things could be and the way we want them to
be,” he said.

  JANA SUMMERS Michael Franti focuses on
playing for the crowd last weekend.

Franti began not by writing songs but by writing poetry. He
started seriously writing when he was around 18, but it
wasn’t until the late ’80s, when he was in his early
20s, that he began to put those words to music.

“I recognized that poetry moves your mind, your emotions
but not your body,” he said.

When Franti began to convert his poems to music, political rap
was at its high point, with socially conscious artists such as
Public Enemy and KRS-One releasing albums in the late
’80s.

“I was really excited by hip-hop because I thought it
really inspired you to have a voice. And it has,” he said.
“I’m really sad about the fact that MTV and radio have
sent the message that hip-hop is all about materialism; it’s
all about greed; it’s all about self-hatred. To me, hip-hop
and poetry are the opposite of that. They’re about self-love
and about self-expression.”

Even though Franti’s work now focuses on those positive
ideals, his earlier music, while he was with the Beatnigs and
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, had the angry and political
lyrical messages that were prominent in so much of rap music.

“There were times when I was releasing my anger and that
was the only emotion I was unleashing,” he said. “Now I
realize it’s important to give voice to the full rainbow of
emotions ““ joy, serenity, but anger is one of them. For me
its about letting go like the ocean lets go in the natural process
of building up and building up and then ahhh.”

His focus on not only politics but also positivity sets him
apart from much of today’s mainstream hip-hop, which has come
under fire for misogynistic and violent lyrics.

The persona of many popular rappers is often one of either a
gang member or a rap star living a large and materialistic life.
These are not messages that Franti agrees with.

“There are two messages in my music,” Franti said.
“The first is compassion. Try to be compassionate. The second
is to be yourself, whoever you are.”