Homeboy Sandman
Encyclopedia
Personal
Homeboy Sandman grew up in New York City and attended boarding school at New Hampshire’s Holderness SchoolHolderness School
The Holderness School is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Holderness, near Plymouth, New Hampshire in the United States. The student body of 275 is drawn from 22 U.S. states and 14 foreign countries. While Holderness operates primarily as a boarding school, it also enrolls 50...
(part of New York City’s Prep For Prep 9 program). He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and subsequently enrolled in law school at Hofstra University. He withdrew from law school during his third year to pursue his career as an emcee.
Career
Homeboy Sandman recorded and released his first EP, Nourishment, in March 2007. His debut full length album, entitled Nourishment (Second Helpings), was released in August 2007. In early 2008 Homeboy Sandman's work began to be featured on underground radio programs the Squeeze Radio Show on WKCR 89.9 FM and the Halftime Radio Program on WNYU 89.1 FM in New York. In June 2008 he was featured in Source Magazine's "Unsigned Hype" column.His second album, Actual Factual Pterodactyl was acclaimed upon its release in August 2008. The album received an entry in XXL Magazine's Chairman's Choice column, which praised Homeboy Sandman's "sharp lyrics and irresistibly melodic flow, which, together, form an elastic instrument few MCs can match." Actual Factual Pterodactyl received critical acclaim in a multitude of other print and online publications, including Blender Magazine, Beyond Race Magazine, Okayplayer.com and MSN.com. At the end of 2008, Homeboy Sandman was named "Best Hip Hop Act in NYC 2008" by New York Press. Recently his music has received rotation on NYC's Power 105.1 FM and Hot 97.1 FM, the city's #1 Hip Hop and R&B radio station, as well as international radio airplay on Spitkicker Radio (Channel 65 on XM Satellite Radio), DJ Premier's "Live From HeadQCourterz" (Sirius Satellite Radio's #1 ranked Hip Hop show) and BBC 1Xtra's Hip Hop M1X (Hosted by DJ Sarah Love), among others.
In addition to his studio releases, Homeboy Sandman has garnered widespread attention for his live performances. Early in his career he was a Ralph McDaniels
Ralph McDaniels
Ralph “Uncle Ralph” McDaniels is a hip-hop culture pioneer, entrepreneur, and visionary who created Video Music Box, the first music video show focused exclusively to an urban market—broadcast on public television...
Video Music Award Winner and he received End of the Weak's inaugural "Strongest New Artist" award in 2008 for his participation in the open mic and weekly MC challenges. He then went on to become the NYC Champion in Jermaine Dupri's TAG Records "Survival of the Fittest" competition in August 2008 and was a finalist in Loud.com’s $100,000 Rapper Challenge in 2009. From January 2008 to August 2009, Homeboy Sandman served as the host of “ALL THAT! Hip Hop, Poetry and Jazz” at the Nuyorican Poets Café
Nuyorican Poets Café
The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit organization in Alphabet City, Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, USA, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre.-History:...
, New York City’s longest running open mic session (originally hosted by Hip Hop icon Bobbito García
Bobbito Garcia
Robert "Bobbito" García , also known as Kool Bob Love and formerly known as DJ Cucumberslice, Bobbito The Barber, Make It Happen, Boogie Bob, Soul Food Bob, and Bag of Tricks, is a Puerto Rican DJ, writer, entrepreneur, streetball player/coach/announcer, sneaker connoisseur, and member of the Rock...
). He has performed at the biggest hip hop shows around the country, including the South by Southwest
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
(SXSW) music festival in Austin, TX, the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival in Brooklyn, NY, the Rock the Bells
Rock the Bells
Rock the Bells is an annual hip hop festival that originally took place in Southern California only, but has since toured throughout the world. The concert features a lineup of high-profile alternative hip hop artists, often headlined by a more mainstream artist...
hip hop festival in Long Island, NY, the A3C Hip Hop Festival in Atlanta, GA and New York City's CMJ Music Marathon
CMJ Music Marathon
CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival is put on by CMJ Network. CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 is scheduled for October 19–23 and will be headquartered at New York University and other downtown NYC venues.- History :...
. Homeboy Sandman has also been noted for recording video interviews with other performers at his live shows, which are captured in his YouTube video series "Homeboy Sandman presents Live From..."
In addition to his own releases, Homeboy Sandman has appeared on numerous records by other artists, frequently with members of the AOK Collective, with whom he is affiliated. He recently appeared on Fresh Daily's 2009 album The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes of Passion and the 2008 album For Your Consideration released by P.SO (formerly P. Casso). Homeboy Sandman collaborated with both Fresh Daily and P.SO for the song "Get On Down," which is featured on Sonic Smash, the album released in 2009 by music producer DJ Spinna
DJ Spinna
DJ Spinna is an American hip hop music artist and producer, who, according to Allmusic.com, has "remained strictly an underground artist despite his astonishing talent."-Biography:...
. Homeboy Sandman has also laid down tracks for a series of features with RIDES Magazine. The track that Homeboy Sandman created for the Loud.com challenge, "Gun Control," was cited as one of the Top 25 Songs of 2009 by Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg.
In January 2010 Homeboy Sandman became a featured artist in the "SUBWAY Fresh Buzz" campaign, a collaborative program by Subway
Subway (restaurant)
Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
and MTV Networks
MTV Networks
MTV Networks is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operations of many television channels and Internet brands, including the original MTV channel in the United States...
to profile emerging artists.
On June 1, 2010, Homeboy Sandman released his third album, The Good Sun, which features production from 2 Hungry Bros, Ski Beats, Thievin' Stephen, DJ Spinna
DJ Spinna
DJ Spinna is an American hip hop music artist and producer, who, according to Allmusic.com, has "remained strictly an underground artist despite his astonishing talent."-Biography:...
, Psycho Les (The Beatnuts
The Beatnuts
The Beatnuts are a New York-based hip hop group and production duo from Queens, New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu is Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les is a Colombian American from Jackson Heights...
) and Core Rhythm, among others. The album received critical acclaim from various publications including Okayplayer
Okayplayer
Okayplayer.com is an online hip-hop and alternative music website and community, described by Rolling Stone as a "tastemaker" and "an antidote to dull promotional Web sites used by most artists". The group was co-founded by The Roots' drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson as a loose musical...
and HipHopDX, which notes "[f]rom mic to plug, The Good Sun is a sleek offering loaded with relentless, genre-pushing musicality, otherworldly rhyme schemes and contextual relevance. It’s the type of album where the sum of the whole is greater than each individual part; a collection of songs so solid and so well placed that, together, they lift the album into rarified air." The first single off of The Good Sun was "Angels with Dirty Faces," produced by J57. In September 2010 Homeboy Sandman released his first official video for The Good Sun for the track entitled The Essence.
In the fall of 2010 Homeboy Sandman was featured as the coach in an episode of MTV's MADE (TV Series)
Made (TV series)
MTV's MADE is a self-improvement reality television series broadcast on MTV. The series follows teens who have a goal and want to be "made" into things like singers, athletes, dancers, skateboarders, etc. The teens are joined by a "Made Coach", an expert in their chosen field, who tries to help...
, which premiered in October 2010.
In August 2011 Homeboy Sandman signed with Stones Throw Records
Stones Throw Records
Stones Throw Records is an independent hip hop record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was started in 1996 by DJ/Producer Peanut Butter Wolf in part to release the music he made with Charizma who was killed at the age of 20....
and is expected to release his debut project with the California-based record label in early 2012.
Discography
Albums, EPs & Mixtapes- The Good Sun (2010)
- Actual Factual Pterodactyl (2008)
- DJ BabeyDrew Presents Homeboy Sandman: There Is No Spoon (2008)
- Nourishment (Second Helpings) (2007)
- Nourishment EP (2007)
Collaborations and Guest Appearances (list is not exhaustive)
- "Parallel Perpendicular" from 2 Hungry Bros. x AOK Collective's My Crew's All Thinner!
- "Best In Show" from P. Casso's For Your Consideration
- "Starter Pistol" from Fresh Daily's The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes of Passion
- "Get on Down" from DJ Spinna's Sonic Smash
- "20 years High & Rising (Homage To De La Soul)" from Mick Boogie x Terry Urban's Le Da Soul: 20 Years of De La Soul
- "Scenario" from PH's (formerly Pumpkinhead) MY ERA: No Skinny Jeans Allowed
- "Up to No Good (Remix)" from J.J. Brown's Connect the Dots
- "Love, Love" feat. KRS-One from Kyle Rapp's forthcoming mixtape Edutainment
- "Still Phenomenal" feat. Sene & Co$$ from J57′s Digital Society