In the post-download era, the amount of free swag the typical music writer received dropped at the same precipitous rate as record sales. The Kelly Clarkson beer coozies? Fuggedaboutit. The triple XXL Fat Joe t-shirt? Nada. The Everlast bobblehead? These were different times. But were those the best of times, or the end of times?

Regardless, I was brought back to the odd swag era by a recent package I received from Anti- Records: a large poster featuring, on one side, all the lyrics from “The Best of Times,” a song by rapper Sage Francis off his new album Li(f)e; the other side featured twitter testimonials and the like from people about how great and meaningful the song is. Now, such a presentation would usually induce the gag reflex, except for the fact that “The Best of Times” is a surprising, fantastic song, both a high water mark for both hip-hop and for Sage Francis as an artist. “The Best of Times” is one of those songs, like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana or “Welcome To The Terrordome” by Public Enemy, that you will always remember the first time you heard it (it was a Sunday, and KCRW was playing in the background…). What set it apart immediately was its length and sprawling ambition: starting with minimalist electronic keyboard bells before evolving into a kind of swirling, painterly indie rock that evokes Grizzly Bear or Arcade Fire over its near six-minute length, “The Best of Times” proves that rare ambitious in hip-hop (Ras Kass’ “Nature of the Threat” comes to mind, but this is a far more multi-genre experience); indeed, “The Best of Times” evokes songs like experimental epics “Paranoid Android” or “Stairway To Heaven” more than, say, anything by Soulja Boy. Over this backdrop, Sage Francis delivers the performance of his life. I have to admit, I was never a huge Sage Francis fan before this song; perhaps unfairly, I found his style mostly a strident combination of Slug from Atmosphere and Zach de la Rocha from Rage Against The Machine—admirable, perhaps, but a little obvious and short on the inspired magic that makes classic hip-hop indelible. Well, with the “The Best of Times” he’s surpassed himself.

Dropping lyrics spanning both a widely critical view of where we are in society (“technology made it easy for us to stay in touch while keeping our distance/’Til we just stayed distant and never touched, now all we do is text to much”) and the deeply personal (“Tone Loc was talking about a wild thing, I was still caught up in some child things/Scared of a God who couldn’t spare the rod, it was clearly a brim-stone and fire thing”), Sage Francis really goes there on “The Best of Times.” It’s deeply confessional, but more Dylanesque than emo; probably only in the truly devastating era we live in could a rapper forego the bling and notice what was blowin’ in the wind other than blunt smoke. Well, Sage Francis has, and he’s to be commended. This would be a very meaningful effort in good times or bad, but I suppose we need it now more than ever.

Sage Francis plays this Sunday, June 6, in Los Angeles at the The Music Box.