HomeBoy Sandman"The Good Sun"

Label:High Water Music

New York City, Queens resident Homeboy Sandman releases his third album. His debut being ‘Nourishment’ in 2007; Sandman returns with a vengeance on ‘The Good Sun’; with production coming from veterans Ski Beatz (producer on Jay-Z‘s debut, ‘Reasonable Doubt‘ with tracks-‘Politics As Usual’ and ‘Dead Presidents II’ ), Psycho Les (of The Beatnuts) and DJ Spinna (who worked with Eminem, earlier in his career). Featured guests are Fresh Daily on ‘Table Cloth’ and John Robinson and Daniel Joseph on ‘The Things They Carried’.

Sandboy kick-starts the album with ‘Core Rhythm’; an introductory instrumental. It is evident from the outset that Homeboy Sandman is a talented rapper. Instead of relying on gimmicks he is your ‘Average Joe’ best personified on ‘Yeah, I Can Rap Though’, where even he has a hard time pigeonholing himself in third person. Throughout ‘The Good Sun’ he drops words of wisdom such as -“They tell me dumb it down/ I tell ‘em smarten up” on ‘Not Pop’ educating ‘wack rappers’, A and R’s and their fans. While witty bars like- “I leave space kinda like ALF did/ Seen Dark (K)nights like Alfred” on ‘Calm Tornado’. What also makes him talented is his ability to change the pace of his flow, a technique many MC’s hardly use (forexample, Guru from Gang Starr made it his thing to have a “monotonous” flow) which was evident on ‘The Carpenter’ where he rhymes with an energetic delivery.

The production is certainly underground from the gritty loops and breaks as if it was conjured up in a cramped, stuffy basement (which is not necessarily detrimental) on ‘Not Pop’, ‘The Things They Carried’, ‘Calm Tornado’ and the final track, ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ which is a stark contrast to more mainstream music having 808‘s, Autotune or female R&B singers on the hook.

Homeboy Sandman shows us you don’t need a rap sheet that includes getting shot loads of times, selling kilos of white, or going to prison more times than you release albums; all you need is depth and layers with also that right chemistry between decent beats and lyrics which paint vivid images, entertain the listener and that you can really feel-all of which is done on ‘The Good Sun’.

R