More About Homeboy Sandman
I grew up in Queens. That was cool. I went to high school in New Hampshire. That was cool. I went to college in Philly. That was cool.I've always loved hip hop music. My first tape was DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper." Fat tape. Cats slept because Fresh Prince was comfortable having fun. Sad how cats should sleep because of such a thing. Such slumber is prevalent even to this day.
I grew up on Queens Blvd. on one of the biggest bootlegging blocks in all of New York City so I used to get everything that came out on bootleg tape two for five from my African homey. I'd get two tapes every weekend and just absorb those until the next weekend when I'd get two more. I was so loyal that even weekends when I didn't have any scratch my man would lace me with a free tape to hold me over. Anything from '88 to '98 that was out, I got that.
Leaving NYC at an early age gave me an opportunity to expand my musical horizons. When I was in New Hampshire a cat named Erik Bass gave me a Roots cd. Nobody was bumping The Roots back home. At first listen I was like, this is whack. At second listen I was like, oh this isn't whack, quite the contrary it's the deffest thing I've ever heard (I find sometimes the mind has delayed reactions like that when presented with something fresh the likes of which it's never been presented before). This isn't to say that if I had been in NYC the entire time I never would have gotten down with The Roots. Black Thought was Big Pun's favorite emcee too. Just to say that it was easier for me to think outside of the box since I technically was outside of the box.
I always used to spit my little raps but I never took it seriously. Around college and after graduating it came to my attention that I was actually astronomically nice but however I was a weedhead and so I didn't really take any of it seriously.
Once I quit smoking and realized that I was actually nice, unusually nice, nice enough that if I didn't become a full time emcee it would be some slight against the universe that had endowed me with this gift, and it wasn't that I was just nice because I was high, or that I wasn't even nice but I was high so I thought I was, I haven't really done anything else since then. (Pardon that run on sentence. Read it a few times, it'll make sense).
I wrote and recorded my first EP, "Nourishment" in 3 months and started doing shows. I was pretty unusually nice so it didn't take much time for cats to recognize. Big shout to End of the Weak for really allowing me to gain my initial strong foothold. I dropped my first album soon after "Nourishment. (Second Helpings)." It was slamming and everybody that heard it could tell that something was up. I work very hard so things have pretty much been smooth sailing. I picked up Unsigned Hype in The Source that first summer after one of the writers wound up at a show I did at the Bowery Poetry Club, (When cats see my live show it's pretty much a done deal. I have fun), and that really got the ball rolling. Fresh Daily introduced me to Sucio Smash at Squeeze Radio and Why G? introduced me to DJ Eclipse at the Halfime show and they held me down (up) so we were up and running.
Dag this is getting pretty long. I'ma wrap it up.
Ever since everything is moving right on schedule. My second album "Actual Factual Pterodactyl" garnered major praise and brought me a lot of excellent press and visibility. There's more about that other places in the website if you look around. I hunted down Peter Rosenberg AKA Chosenberg until I was able to get him to listen to some stuff because I knew he would hold me down (up) as he's a true hip hop man and true hip hop cats are who I'm here for first and foremost. Actually there should be a 1sheet somewhere on this site that will summarize how well things are going much more quickly. Suffice it to say, we are now national and on the cusp of going worldwide.
Stuff I may have left out:
My next album "The Good Sun" is due out in February on HighWaterMusic.
Some of my favorite emcees are Mos Def, Black Thought, Big Pun, Eminem, Andre 3000, De La Soul, Tanya Morgan, Blu, Oddisee, and YC the Cynic. I'm leaving a lot of cats out but just to give you a basic idea.
I don't know if that's really the type of info you put into a bio. Matter fact I'ma cut it here. Peace.
