Interview with Spoken word poet, Sage Has.son

His name, Sage Has.son is a sentence in the same way African names are usually sentenced; So read it as the Sage has son i.e. a wise person has produced an offspring (in his case, this sage has produced wisdom and entertainment through his artform). Born Sammy Hasson some 30 something years ago, Sage is renowned for pioneering spoken word poetry in Nigeria. I had a chat with Sage about the art, his challenges, and his vision for spoken word in Nigeria.

What’s spoken word?

It’s simply poetry given wings so it could fly. Before the advent of the printed page or the printing revolution, poetry existed and it was done in a variation of what I am doing now. When the printing machine was invented, poetry’s face, image, and form changed to fit books but now, with the world more interested in being spoon-fed, poetry is returning to its essence.

When did you start and how?

It started about 7 years ago, but back then I was not certain about the response. Besides I had a good job writing for Ovation Magazine traveling all around the country, meeting the power brokers in the country, and that was a distraction. However, in July 2005, I felt a leading from God to do this, and here I am

When was your first major outing?

My first major public outing was HiphopWorld Awards in 2006 and the subsequent telecasting of the event, followed by the Big Brother Nigeria. Now I work regularly for companies like Guinness, Unilever, and have relationships with a lot more other organizations besides the numerous weddings, end of year parties, beauty pageants, brand launches etc

On his debut:

My debut album is out its titled THE POET. It’s a 16 tracker and my call card into the market I’m currently working on a friendlier offering to be released by the 3rd quarter of the year. Current career challenges: I’m taken a bit too seriously and strait jacketed people seem to have the impression that my scope of influence might be limited. Who says I can’t do a major concert? I have an acoustic band and back up vocalists and we are beginning to have gigs though small we hope for bigger events. I also need more understanding from the so called professionals in the biz; this ties in to the above issue though.

Spoken word in Nigeria, and your vision:

I see spoken word assuming the same status as what it is in America and to run parallel to the comedy industry. In Nigeria, I see the emergence of social prophets who will be social critics, preachers and teachers; artistes who will tow Fela’s philosophy without the lifestyle; positive people. I see Nigeria accepting spoken word, starting from mine and Nigerians becoming the greatest spoken word lovers. This is quite possible and I see that happening in a decade or less. Personally, I see me releasing poetry albums, infiltrating schools, homes, clubs, parties with the word, and filling minds with liberating truth and entertaining the soul with intelligence .

What group of people would you consider your core audience?

Funny enough when I started it was automatically assumed that the up stream market will be my audience. Now I think I’m mainstream. I think I’ll be accepted like 2face and D’banj – may be not in the same magnitude – but Nigerians are intelligent people and they all love intelligent things. At first, the core of my fans were women, now I get similar attention from the men. the only thing though unlike D’banj, children do not understand what I’m doing and some older ones, though they understand what I’m doing, fail to decipher what I’m saying, but time will work that out and I’m simplifying my approach.

Final word:

Please go out there and buy my album The Poet.

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