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