SAND for Your Serrato! An Interview with Homeboy Sandman

Story by Elfin Delmundo

In a time of economic crisis, investing in our hip-hop musical entertainment has become difficult because most of the available commodities are not created by specialists just shareholders who outsource to unqualified hacks and fiends. I even suspect a campaign led by the actual fashion industry. The roof ifs on fire and they are hiring plumbers to put out the flames and Co Intel Pro to vacuum the upholstery. Well in case you were looking or have been living in New York City or online, you’ve most likely heard of an individual who goes by Homeboy Sandman. We at Interboro feel we are responsible for bringing you all things genuine and NEW YORK! This incredibly talented MC from Elmhurst, Queens, has put on unforgettable shows and has self-released impressive CDs, including Nourishment and Actual Factual Pterodactyl. Now he's flexing an amazing EP entitled Subject: Matter, a six-song history lesson on the art of his craft that is one of the best things to emerge from the urban jungle in 2012, as well as another EP, entitled Chimera, due this month. He can do everything your favorite rap hero was able to do but better and new improved. He is probably the only reason to “support” hip-hop anymore and it won’t feel like garnished wages for beloved children conceived out of wedlock. HOMEBOY SANDMAN.

IRT: In your name I find two progressions, boy to a man, and from the home to the beach. Am I reading this too deeply/ How did this name manifest itself?

Sand: I picked up on the boy to man progression myself, but that was after the fact. The home to the beach progression though, you're the first to pick up on that. Congratulations. You're very keen. The progression is apt, as my music is much like taking a day off of a job you don't like, to spend the whole day at the beach. However, sometimes you do this in the summer, and other times you do it in the winter. Either way though, all you rock is trunks or a bikini. Trunks if you're a dude. Bikini if you're a chick.

IRT: I heard that you lived abroad for a while? How was radio programming in England? Are they due for Sandman brand of "extreme measures"?

Sand: I was out there for 4 months during my junior year in college. I ain't really listen to the radio. I was too drunk. Craig David was big out there at that point. Every day somebody else told me i looked like him. That's when I had my hair and manicured beard look going.

IRT: In 1996, Chino XL, said he came to save us all from evil rap of sorts. Then a few years later, he releases an album about not performing cunnilingus. What do you see yourself doing in the future if your 'extreme measures" don't pan out?

Sand: If breaking into radio stations and using violence doesn't work, I'll find another way. Maybe befriending a lonely female programmer. Or I guess since I wanna be on all the different stations I'll have to befriend all the female programmers, should they be lonely or not. Shouldn't be too difficult.

IRT: Rumor has it, you may be an uncompromising idealist. What in your life experiences has motivated you or developed your sense of determination?

Sand: Good question. The truth as I understand it is, you're supposed to do what God wants you to do, no matter what. He's the cat that's really pulling all the strings, so even when it appears that doing what he wants makes no sense in this dog eat dog instant gratification driven world, it actually does make sense. Even if I don't understand how at that particular moment, or even ever. So, believing that, it's not really that difficult to be uncompromising. Compromising appears completely ridiculous and counterproductive.

IRT: You seem to have this mutant ability of energy transference. I know I can feel the energy you exert into the crowd. Who do you rap for and how do you feel at the end of a show?

Sand: I rap for everybody. At the end of the show I often feel euphoric. I also often feel spent. I feel an odd energy transference thing going on up there too. It's kinda bugged. It's dope.

IRT: When did you begin to write rhymes?

Sand: I wrote a song called "I'm Hype," when I was a kid. I can't even really remember when. Maybe during junior high. I can't much remember it, but I feel like it must have been whack. If it was dope I'd remember it.

IRT: When and what made you decide to become a full time emcee?

Sand: I realized that I actually was capable of doing things in hip-hop music that I have never been done before on a regular basis, and not just when I was high.

"The Miracle" off Subject: Matter EP: