Describing himself as a soulrocker, Michael Franti's funky fusion of rock,
reggae, soul and hip-hop has always been filled with socially conscious passion
and has taken him from singing on the streets of Baghdad to playing at Folsom
Prison and performing for the Dalai Lama, since he first emerged in the 1990s.
Born in Oakland, California on April 21, 1966, to an African-American father and
an Irish-American mother, Franti was put up for adoption at nine months old
because his mother believed that her parents wouldn't accept him, and he instead
was raised by a Finnish couple. The ...