If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

The children are our future and we may all realize this, but not enough of us cultivate the growth of the youth to assure that we have a beautiful future. Kids love celebrities, especially when that celebrity has a song that tells them exactly how to “Swag Surf” or how to just be fly. If we knew any better, we wouldn’t allow artists to dictate what our children become, especially if all they sang or rapped about was money, clothes and hoes. There was one teacher that saw the deterioration of our young people and decided to do something about it. He didn’t create bold new lesson plans or plan super cool field days, he became an emcee. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Homeboy Sandman was born. Since becoming an emcee, he hasn’t done anything else and that’s a great thing because we need music that has a pulse--music that cares. His first commercial release--The Good Sun--dropped on June 1st and in case you haven’t heard it yet, please do yourself a favor. Homeboy Sandman is pulling hip hop out of the club, the bedroom and definitely off the block. There’s so much more to rhyme about than the obvious and if you’re willing to learn, this teacher is willing to teach.

Danielle Young

Congratulations on your first commercial release! I know it just came out at the beginning of this month. In case we haven’t heard it yet, what can we expect to hear on The Good Son?

From a musical standpoint--it provides melodies, alliteration, assonance, wordplay and all the elements of music that make brilliance. There is all new music, an all new sound--from the production to the rhyming. The execution is all pushing the envelope. I don’t really have a style, so It’s all different types of styles. We have a variety of content. We have songs up there about homeless people, the things we have in our pockets and making faces at people. One thing I am excited about when it comes to this album is the variety of content that I am looking to provide. I am so fed up that cats [these days] are rapping about seven things. Even if they’re not rapping about money, criminality or something like that, they rap about how they don’t rap about that. There’s not too many dimensions. You can expect a lot of different angles and dealing with a lot of issues that nobody deals with in hip hop. In other music, you can make songs about anything. I would like for hip hop to embrace that as well.

That’s true. People consider hip hop to be a culture. As broad as that is, It’s surprising that people can’t cover more topics. Are you bringing something fresh to hip hop that people haven’t heard?

Absolutely. The danger in looking at it as a culture--whoever decides where hip hop becomes popular gets to decide what our culture becomes. It used to be more cultural, in the streets and winds up on the radio. Now it starts on the radio and winds up on the streets. We’re not the ones picking the records. We’ve given up our power of choice by showing that we won’t turn off the radio to the hogwash they give us. It’s not even us choosing what our culture becomes! Q-tip said, “Hip-hop can never be a way of life. It doesn’t show you how to raise a child or treat a wife?” I agree with that, but hip-hop has started telling people how to treat a wife.  It’s not people with our best interests in mind choosing which messages we get. It can make us one dimensional people if we can allow this music and only what is talked about in this music to stand for our culture. That’s why I try to talk about whatever. I will make a song about eating watermelon. That happens in my culture. I write a song about cutting the grass or going to the beach--whatever comes to mind. Let’s show them we have all different types of dimensions taking place in our lives and culture.

Let’s talk about your name--Homeboy Sandman. Where did that come from?

The name did kind of come to me as if in a dream. I’ve always gotten a kick out of coming up with monikers for myself even before I started rhyming. When I came up with Homeboy Sandman, it had an impact. It had gravity to it that I knew I would stick to this for the rest of my life. This was before I started rhyming seriously. People think the Sandman puts you to sleep. That’s not true. The Sandman grants you your dreams. It’s much more about the imagery that’s in your head and the ability to create these detailed images. This is what I do with my music. Sometimes It’s so vivid, you don’t even know if It’s real or not. It speaks to the versatility. Think about the Sandman from Marvel Comics--the bad guy that turns his arm into a sledge hammer. I’m very much like that with the way I sound. I don’t have a style. I don’t sound the same on two different records. I always sound different because I fit into the grooves of the beat like sand. The Homeboy part--this is your homeboy, your man, your peoples. He’s from the building around the way. You see him all the time, he’s got your back. If the Sandman lived in your building, he’d be Homeboy Sandman. That’s how I came up with that.

It seems you’re all about self improvement--with your teacher/emcee transition and being a conscious artist. Do you feel that image of you helps your music on a selling level?

I don’t feel like any type of label on my music hurts it at all. My music is undeniable. It speaks for itself. People always ask me what makes me different from other rappers. You don’t ask John Coltrane what makes him different from other sax players. All you have to do is listen to his music. I’m a genuine article. I’m a musician. I make music. You listen to my music, you can call is conscious, sub-conscious, whatever you want. A lot of this stuff doesn’t matter to me the way it matters to most hip hop artists. It doesn’t limit me like that. The record has music in it that you don’t always hear in hip hop. That’s one thing.

What’s people’s biggest misconception of you?

I did this song called “Older Aura” the other day for another album--not The Good Sun­. It’s just about how I feel sometimes when I tell people I’m an emcee or rapper and they assume all these terrible things about me just because of these stereotypes they have of rappers. Misogyny, aggression--I’m all about peace and love and nothing else. When people come to see and say, “You’re conscious,” I’m not talking about the stupidest possible things, does that make me conscious? I don’t have songs about killing n*ggas, does that make me conscious? I do have songs that are conscious where I’m speaking on growth and spirituality. I consider these things to be conscious. I did a rhyme the other day, I was just having fun and this dude was like, “I see you’re on the conscious tip,” because there was no body count or banging chicks. To me, it was bugged out because that’s a disturbing default. When you’re not just saturated with horrific things throughout, you’re automatically conscious. I look forward to the day when people don’t suspect such horrible things and we’re elevated. Consciousness is a serious thing. It’s awareness. I consider myself someone who is conscious, seeks to be conscious and is always learning how to improve, but it goes beyond just not being horrible.

Do you feel you would ever fit into a category? Your lead single, “Not Pop” certainly is an opinionated testimony about how you feel about pop music. Do you want to be a part of mainstream?

I want my record to be heard by everybody in the world. I want to be on all the radio stations. I want my videos on all the channels. I want all of that. It’s not that I don’t want maximum visibility. My music is created from a place in me that is true and real for me. It’s not created to subscribe to any type of framework or appeal to anyone in particular. I’m not trying to build a hit record. When I think of pop music, I think of rap songs that took 15 minutes to make; I think of R&B songs that took 15 minutes to make. I think of cookie-cutter. Pop is missing the essential, the fundamental, the truth, the pushing of the envelope, the musicality. The song “Not Pop” is to say, I will never create records to appeal to somebody. Everything is going to be true. Nothing will be conformist. I would love for that record to be heard everywhere, but that’s still not going to make it a pop record. This is music that lasts forever. When I think pop, I think temporary, disposable music.

You can be as dope as you want and work as hard as you want, but at the end of the day, it’s about the fans liking your music. Do you feel you have a strong enough fan base to carry you over to mainstream?

Absolutely. I actually have the utmost confidence because I think about my conversion rate. Since I’ve decided I wanted to be an emcee, I haven’t done one other thing. It’s been a ball the entire time. People talk about this cat sold a million records. How many records could he have sold? How many people got to hear his music. For me, the people that hear my music, support it. It’s always been this way. If 70% of the people that hear my music support it, then I’m good to go. That’s how I can survive selling CDs at open mics and doing shows all over New York City. My conversion rate has shown that when people hear my music, It’s an undeniable thing. As my fan base grows, I don’t expect that to change. The music is good and speaks for itself. Another thing about my fan base that gives me confidence that I never have to worry about anything is I love hip hop music. I was actually able to watch my last CD, Actual Factual Pterodactyl move across the country, then across the world just on the internet getting shouted out by people out of New York, Midwest--I can visualize the hand-to-hand. Then it spreads to other countries. I remember one time during a three-week span, three people came up to me and gave me the Blue and Exile Below the Heavens. They were like, “Yo, you need to hear this man. I’m putting you on because I know you love hip hop music.” Of course I listened to it and it was phenomenal; one of my favorite records I’ve heard recently. Blue is a phenomenal emcee. The point I’m making with that--that’s how music that is undeniable, carries. People that love music are not as not as fickle as, what’s this cat’s visibility like. They will never leave you until the music falls off. As long as the music doesn’t fall off, then there’s a foundation there that lasts forever.

You were saying in pop music, there’s usually a cookie-cutter, cut and paste thing going on. Obviously there is a need and want for it because these records sell. Do you think people actually do want more or are they accepting what artists are putting out?

I feel like people are passionless and accepting anything. I feel like the fact that people are supporting it and buying into it, doesn’t give any illustration that they love it. If you go to the supermarket and all they?re selling is oranges, then oranges will sell. How come all this garbage is on the radio? People say that’s what sells. The greatest selling album of all times is Thriller. That is an album about love. Motown was selling like crazy. Good music has always sold. When Common came out with Finding Forever, it was the number one album in the country--not even the number hip hop, but the number one in the United States of America. The week it came out, it could not get one spin on Hot 97 or Power 105--the two major hip hop stations in New York City. You?ve got a hip hop artist with the number one album in the country and he can’t get spins in New York City!? These cats are going out of their way to make sure we’re not hearing music that’s good. If people heard music that was good, they wouldn’t accept all this garbage. The elimination of options is what is taking place. That leaves people accepting so much of this horrific music. We have all the power. If we turn off the radio every time we hear someone talking about killing a n*gga, we’d change all of that by next week. If you think about some of the records that have come out in the last couple of years that have become hit records that everyone agrees that’s horrible--are out to see how far they can go with us. We’ve been failing miserably. We’ve shown that you can put out anything. We’ll eat it up.

Finish this sentence. I became an emcee to …..

Change the world. Make the world better and community better. I became an emcee to provide options and let people know that you can be the man being yourself even if that’s not like being other people.

What are you currently working on and what’s coming up?

I’ve got the album out--The Good Son rises. When people ask me if the album is dropping, I say it’s rising. We’re also working on a video for “Not Pop” which we have to keep pushing back because we have this amazing idea where we need permits for what we’re doing. I’m also four songs into an album I’ll be putting out. I’m not sure when I’m putting it out. I’m working on a project entirely produced by R. Thentic. This brother is a genius. He’s worked with a couple of people. He’s done a song with De La Soul, Mos Def. This cat’s production tells a story on its own. That’s what I look to do. I’m very selective when it comes to beats and production. I always                wonder why cats rap over beats that aren’t good. Is someone making them do that? Don’t they know these beats are no good? A strong beat makes so much of the negativity power because you have a hot beat and you can say anything over it. People are nodding and agreeing to it. I’m pouring songs into this album with R. Thentic. I’m always writing. I’m going to be on the West Coast this month and doing some Midwest stuff. We’re working to solidify substantial road time for taking this show on the road to promote the album. Stay tuned in to Homeboy Sandman. Check out www.HomeboySandman.com for dates on when I’m stopping in to your town. I’m writing and touring. I wouldn’t call it touring. I’ve been on the road a lot. When you have a tour bus, you’re touring. When we’re in the Jetta, you’re on the road. [laughs]