Playlust Playlist, March 2021, ft. Homeboy Sandman + a Top 10

[Ed. - For the sake of time constraints and my general sanity, this will be the last monthly playlist I post on this site. The next plan will be to post a weekly Top 10, plus ONE featured artist, because personal restraint and/or failure thereof. The biographical/programming notes will dry up at the same time. With that, here’s this month’s/week’s featured artist...]

Homeboy (Restless) Sandman
Who He’s For: Fans of indie hip-hop, lovers of complicated flows, topical and conceptual variety, and samples that from fluid to grating.

The Basics: Real name, Angel Del Villar II, Queens-based, born in 1980. He had enough sportz talent to go to UPenn (I think) on a basketball scholarship, but he dropped out for the proper college experience (parties and the ladies). Homeboy Sandman has lived abroad a couple times (the story about living in Sweden, but only half paying attention, when A$AP Rocky got arrested), but he’s pretty close to a five boroughs lifer. He came up in the New York scene via underground radio; by 2008, Source featured him as “unsigned hype.” A couple regular, sturdy gigs came his way - e.g., a stint running “ALL THAT, hip-hop, poetry and jazz” at the Nuyorican Café, a Youtube series he operated called “Homeboy Sandman presents Live From…” - but, in an extended interview with Hot97, he described his career as something closer to a series of accidents/accidental collaborations, things he backs into by the God’s grace. He’s also blunt about his method: he writes a rhyme when he needs money. That speaks to the volume of his discography, which includes 10 full LPs, nearly as many EPs and one, early mixtape. While I picked at a couple other albums, I spent real time on Actual Factual Pterodactyl (2008), Kindness for Weakness (2016), Humble Pi (2018), and Dusty (2019). I really tried with Don’t Feed the Monster, but that fucker is bleak (see, "Trauma"). Homeboy Sandman has a sharp-eyed and unflinching sense of humor and he points it both outward and inward, and he can phrase most ideas six different ways at a minimum. All that follows from a restless, anxious mind. One last thing: he referred to the version of himself that recorded Dusty as an “alter-ego.” And it sounds like it.

 

One Thing I Read That Felt Like It Spoke for Him
“Whether it’s film, or music or books, you know, I don’t like things that remind me of other stuff I already got reminded of that day. You know, I’m running out of time. Hours are getting shorter every second. Who knows when they’re gonna stop? What can I fill this with to get me some new stimulus, you know? I’m looking for some new stimulus.”
- Homeboy Sandman, Hot97 interview

Three Sources
Wikipedia
Appearance/interview on Hot97 (2019; after Dusty; he’s fun to listen to in real-time)
Impose Magazine interview (2014, circa his Hallways LP)

Some Songs
“Wise Up” (ft. Picasso), “Mambo Tail Tale” (Actual Factual)
“Eyes” (Kindness for Weakness)
“Underground Dreams” (Veins, 2017)
“The Gut” and “That Moment When…” (Humble Pi)
“Far Out,” “Name” and “Picture on the Wall” (Dusty)

The Top 10:
1) Cat and the Queen, “Bear Boy” (art pop; funny little tune)

2) Fever Dolls, “Out of Vogue" (pop rock(?), and their peppiest, most anthem-y number)

3) Honeyblood, “Ready for the Magic” (a straight-up rocker)

4) Jonny Kosmo, “Come to Get Down” (indie pop, another li’l rump-shaker)

5) Jon Worthy, “One More Day” (indie rock, more anthem)

6) Moderator, “Walking Slow” (sounds like a hook and sample set up; great beats, too)

7) Open Mike Eagle, “The Curse of Hypervigilance (In Politics, Romance and Cohabitation)”

8) Serengeti, “Persona” (this guy’s a trip; love the progression on the sample)

9) The Shins, “Kissing the Lipless” (a favorite from the two albums I know well; a future project)

10) King Harvest, “Smile on Her Face” (from the last edition of my long-running One Hit More Project, which I’m straight-up heartbroken about discontinuing)

And, that’s it all the way down to the new format. Till the next one. The goal at this point is end of week.