Book Michael Franti

Michael Franti is an American singer, songwriter, poet, rapper and documentarian whose music has long carried a message of peace and social justice. While attending the University of San Francisco, where he also played basketball for the Dons, he formed the industrial punk and spoken-word group the Beatnigs in 1986 with percussionist Rono Tse, releasing a self-titled LP and the EP Television on Alternative Tentacles. Franti and Tse next launched the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, a politically charged hip-hop project from 1991 to 1993 that featured jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter and electronic producers Mark Pistel and Jack Dangers. He then founded Michael Franti & Spearhead, the band he still fronts as lead vocalist, mixing hip-hop with funk, reggae, jazz, folk and rock into an upbeat, groove-driven sound. Along the way he has released solo projects such as Songs From the Front Porch (2002) and Love Kamikaze: The Lost Sex Singles & Collectors' Remixes (2005). Franti's concerts are joyful, high-energy celebrations, built on sing-along choruses, dancing crowds and his uplifting, positive spirit, with the conscious lyrics that have defined his career since the 1980s.