Events

[HIP HOP] If you’re of the impression that hip hop needs saving, Homeboy Sandman might be your savior. The Queens, New York-based Stones Throw Records rapper is known for dropping knowledge like Gideons bibles into hotels. He’s done this not only on his critically acclaimed records—which include 2012’s First of a Living Breed and 2014’s Hallways—but also as an author for websites like the Huffington Post and Gawker, on which he’s talked extensively about everything from race relations in America to the the lack of diversity in contemporary hip hop lyrics. His most recent—and most controversial—article appeared last year on Gawker, titled “Black People Are Cowards.” In the piece, which was motivated by the racist scandal involving LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Homeboy Sandman (real name Angel Del Villar II) made a direct call to action: ”I call us cowards,” he says. “It’s almost as if people have forgotten that struggle includes struggling. You might have to lose your job. You might have to lose your life. That’s what it takes for change to happen. There’s no easy way to do this.” 

This Friday, July 3, Homeboy Sandman comes to the Back Room of Hardware for a special intimate performance as part of The Public’s monthly Public School event series, with support from I Am Many, Root Shock, and Rick Jameson. The 34-year-old rapper took some time this week to talk to us about how he’s updated his thought process in light of the most recent racial tensions in America, and to talk for the first time about his next full length record, Navy Blue.

The last record you put out was 2014’s Hallways. What are you working on now?
I’ve got a record called Navy Blue that’s going to be my next release. I don’t have a date for it yet but it’s already recorded. We’ve got some more to do, as far as the artwork. Just before you called I was typing out the lyrics for possible inclusion in the artwork. It may be as early as October but it could be early next year. 

Hallways was 12 tracks and you worked with 11 different producers. How does Navy Blue compare?
Navy Blue in that regard is similar. It’s got 12 tracks and I think it’s 10 producers. The one thing that is different, though, is I’ve never written an album like this before. I’ve always written a bunch of songs here and there and then put them together, like formulated an album, like a Frankenstein album. I’ve been able to form very capable Frankensteins, but on Navy Blue I sat down and I wrote a whole album. I’ve never done that before. On Hallways, there were songs, like “Stroll,” which I wrote a couple years ago, and then there were songs like “Problems” that I wrote a couple months before the album came out. On Navy Blue everything was written during the same time period.

Was it tough to keep it cohesive working with so many different producers?
No, because the way I wrote this record I had a certain vibe in mind; I have the themes that I’m looking to touch on. I have the picture of what I want to make in mind. Once I have that vision, then even if I’m working with 100 different producers, I can look for what fits the mold I’m looking to fill. This new record is my philosophy. Pain and philosophy are really, really big on this Navy Blue record. Hallways was a really introspective record. It was written at a time of transition. But [Navy Blue] is my philosophy coming through right here.

You wrote a piece about a year ago for Gawker called “Black People are Cowards,” which was essentially a call to action. There have been so many more terrible injustices since you wrote that piece including the events that have transpired in Charleston, and the rash of police brutality cases caught on tape. How would you update that piece? 
I look at things a little differently today than when I wrote that piece. At that point it was kind of a call to arms or me trying to get a bunch of other people to think like me, which I think to be pretty futile. I now focus primarily on being the way I think I should be and not trying to tell other people how they should be: living my life in a way that I think is honorable, courageous, definitely free. How would I update that piece? I would just write it for myself. I would say “Angel, make sure you’re never a coward.” Looking back at it, I wrote that piece for public consumption so that people would think “I want to be like Homeboy Sandman,” but that’s so ego-driven. People are welcome to be whatever way they want to be. I wouldn’t even write a piece called “Black People Are Cowards,” now, I would just write a piece to myself called “Angel, Don’t Be A Coward.”

There is a track on Hallways called “America the Beautiful” and it seems like you kinda let America off the hook on that track.
I think there is a bunch of great stuff going on in America. I can speak for myself, I feel very fortunate to have a lot of the luxuries I had growing up where I grew up. That’s where that song came from, it’s about being grateful. People have asked me if I’m letting America off the hook. I did a song called “Illuminati” on my record First of A Living Breed and it was a lot of pointing out things that were real spooky going on in America. It was less appreciative tone, a much more critical tone, and when I made that record, nobody said “Yo, what about the good things?” But when I make a record about the good things, everybody is saying “Yo, what about the bad things?” America is not a perfect place, but at the time I wrote that record, I felt artistically and personally like being grateful.