Podcast #34 – Francis Aaron – Rapping against the woke (part 1)

Francis Aaron is a rapper from the UK who tackles relevant, controversial social and cultural topics with philosophy, sociology, and psychology.

Francis Aaron is a rapper and writer with an ability to court controversy and intelligent debate. He was born in Blackpool. His mother died when he was young and he lived a nomadic youth in state care. The stories of struggle he found in rap music resonated with him, and over the years he began honing his technique as a lyricist.

He lived in Moscow and St. Petersburg and later hitchhiked across Russia, visiting gulags and wooden fortress towns along the way. He spent time in Europe and the United States, before returning to the UK and becoming a notorious name on the underground rap battle scene. He has been a bartender, a Mathematics tutor, a recording engineer, an English teacher, and has worked to support children in care.

He is currently writing a book about Nietzsche’s influence on 20th century figures. Alongside music producer Left Axis, he has been releasing controversial songs about “the culture war.”

The podcast

Audio

Video

Contents

00:00:00 – Grievance studies & the Woozle effect

00:17:08 – “Problematic” Structuralism, Post-structuralism

00:34:12 – Nietszche, nihilism

00:52:22 – Visiting the North Korean border

01:12:15 – Hitchhiking through Russia, visiting gulags

01:26:16 – Traveling through the USA

01:31:00 – Essay-rap, Michel Foucault, problematization of everything

01:54:00 – Safe spaces, mental illness, lived experiences

02:17:27 – Intersectionality, critical race theory