Rap Artist and Alum Sparks Across Darkness Takes Poet's Approach on Debut Album

SUBMERGE (SACRAMENTO) -- But as one would expect from someone who studied creative writing at San Francisco State, whose classes in the ‘50s would spawn the literary movement known as the San Francisco Renaissance, many of Sparks’ songs feel deliberately verse-forward. In this manner, he resembles both the alt-rappers of the early aughts, as well as the booming movement (contentiously) known as “art-rap,” which has been largely defined by the disparate geographic origins of its vanguard members.