Whatcha' know about Michael Franti?

Michael Franti doesn’t wear shoes. In fact, he hasn’t since 2000, when he tried going without footwear for a couple days. He liked it – feeling it brought him to a more natural, primal state, so he stopped wearing them all together, except for the occasional flip flops so he can board a plane or enter a restaurant.

That may seem an odd detail to kick off a profile on one of the most eclectic and soulful artists of our time, but it’s really as good as any. Because to know Michael Franti is to understand there’s really no end and no beginning to his story, for it stands for something greater than just one man or even one lifetime.

But we have to start somewhere, so we can tell you this: he was born in Oakland 1966. His multi ethnic influences and eclectic musical tastes aren’t a surprise when we look at his ancestry. Michael’s mother was Irish, German, and French, and his father was African-American and Native American.

But his birth mother put him up for adoption because she was worried that her family wouldn’t accept him. He was adopted by Carole Wisti and Charles Franti, a Finnish-American couple in Oakland, who at the time had three biological children and one adopted African American son.

His adopted father was a professor at UC Davis and Franti attended Davis Senior High School and graduated from the University of San Francisco.  It was there he met a priest who taught him the art of life on paper, telling a story with a pen. The budding poet wrote line after line and then soon transitioned into hip hop verses. He bought a cheap bass at a pawnshop and soon started putting it all to music.

His original band, founded in 1986, was called the Beatnigs, a collage of punk music, spoken word poetry, and hip hop verses. His band was a frequent guest on college radio as Franti actually lived over the KUSF studio. 

In 1991, he moved on to his next musical group, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Their music exhibited punk, hip hop, and jazz music, and expressed a scathing social discourse in which you could almost hear Gil Scott’s ghost. They won critical acclaim for their political consciousness and went on to work with Beat novelist William Burroughs, providing the soundtrack to his reading.

Franti founded Spearhead in 1994 along with several studio musicians and friends. Their first album, Home in 1994, displayed an understated maturity with funk and soul sounds short on social commentary. 1997 saw the follow up release of Chocolate Supa Highway, a swing back toward hip hop and pronounced one of the best underground eclectic rap/funk projects of all time.

Franti and company subsequently split with Capitol Records over creative differences (they wanted him to work with Will Smith, and other pop rappers.) Instead of shopping for a new corporate record deal, Franti simply created his own label, Boo Boo Wax. Since Capitol still owned the rights to Spearhead, they became Michael Franti and Spearhead. They started hitting – not on the Billboard charts selling millions of copies, but permeating society from the top down. Their songs accompanied movies, like Good Burger, on Nickelodeon, and in collaborations with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His songs later appeared on two episodes of HBO’s The Wire, an FX channel series, a PlayStation game, a 2010 South Africa World Cup game, and Showtime’s Weeds, among others.

In 2000, Franti and Spearhead released Stay Human, crystallizing their vision of social justice through love and music. They were a band on a mission.

"Half the record is songs about what's happening in the world right now,” said Franti. “And the other half is about how we cope with it as people who are concerned about what's going on. This specter of war, intimidation, this nation vs. the rest of the world, it wears us out. Half the record is a healthy dose of venting anger about that, and the other half is about how do we hold on to our spirituality, our community and our connectedness to each other."

He’s gone on to explore afrofunk, bossa nova, reggae, dancehall, hip hop, acoustic folk, ska, Latin rock, and ballads.

Franti has travelled all over the globe, not just to play musical shows but to investigate the outer reaches of humanity, evolving his world view in places like Africa, Brazil, the West Bank, and Israel.

There’s no cause he’s unable to trumpet with the help of his trusty guitar and melodic, rooted voice. From democracy to Mumia Abu-Jamal, capital punishment to criticizing corporate profits, or just donating $25,000 of his own money to Haiti relief efforts. His song, Bomb The World, became an impromptu anthem after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

2008’s All Rebel Rockers was recorded in Jamaica under the iconic dub production team Sly and Robbie, resulting in a top 20 single on the U.S. charts. He was an outspoken (and loud singing) supporter for Barack Obama and jumped into pro-environmental causes, aiming to outlaw the use of plastic water bottles at his concerts and making sure his tour bus runs on biodiesel.

Always evolving and ready to tackle the world’s issues, Franti made a film, I Know I’m Not Alone, to advocate peace in the middle east, with no agenda, organization, nation, or religion in mind except love and peace.

"This film came out of my frustration with watching the nightly news and hearing generals, politicians, and pundits explaining the political and economic cost of the war in the Middle East, without ever mentioning the human cost. I wanted to hear about the war by the people affected by it most: doctors, nurses, poets, artists, soldiers, and my personal favorite, musicians."

He’s won awards – as a musician, a social activist and a filmmaker. He stays incredibly active even as he approaches 50 years old, a vegan yogi with the energy level of a 20 year old. And still shoeless.

It’s hard not to describe Franti’s legacy without cataloging his life’s work, but if there is one of his projects we’d highlight to reveal the soul of the man, it might as well be the Do It For Love Foundation. The organization, created by Franti and his girlfriend, among others, grants a wish to people with terminal illnesses to meet their favorite musical artists and attend a concert. Franti believes in the healing power of music, dance and laughter, and ultimately of love.

So we’ll excuse Franti if he doesn't wear shoes. You may still find it odd but the truth is that as an artist and a human being, he still leaves some noble footprints for us to follow.

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-Norm Schriever
uTunes staff writer