Homeboy Sandman

Hip-hop purists fall at the feet of Homeboy Sandman. The 42-year-old Queens emcee has been at it for 16 years now and made a name for himself in the underground on the strength of his witty, inventive stream-of-consciousness flow and deadpan sense of humor. Sandman’s time with the Stones Throw label made him something of an indie rap darling, and he hasn’t slowed down. Just last year, he released an album, Still Champion, which he told Rock the Bells is about god.

Underground rap hero Homeboy Sandman is coming down specifically for a special Florida tour, and he’s rolling with Orlando star E-Turn for the limited five-city run. That one-two combo alone makes this dream bill a knockout, pairing a couple of the most distinctive and original voices in hip-hop right now. This Orlando date is particularly momentous because it’ll also feature the debut of DNA, the new joint between noted homegrown artists Sean Shakespeare and Eighth Letter.

Veteran rapper Homeboy Sandman returns with the visuals for his song "Omnipresent" taken from his recently released mixtape, I Can’t Sell These. “Omnipresent,” sees the rapper rapping his ass off over the off-kilter electronic soundscape from Venezuluan electronic composer Angel Rada's song "Basheeba". In his usual fashion, Homeboy Sandman gets into the zone with his multi-syllabic rhyme pattern and unpredictable cadence that switches up at every turn. He sure is extremely comfortable with the bright uplifting synths and drumless arrangement as he kicks lines like "Separate fact from fiction/ draw my own map, I don't like conviction/ switch to slow-mo with the pole position/ flipping both sides of the Mason Dixons" reminding listeners that he only dances to the beat of his own drum.

I had an interesting side adventure this week. Our wonderful food writers asked me, as well as other Seven Days peeps, to review Burlington's pizza spots for a piece in next week's issue. Now, I'm not going to go on about how much I love pizza, because everybody loves pizza, except those cursed by the gods to suffer from the lactose or the gluten. You have my deepest sympathies, for real. I tried one of those cauliflower pizzas one time, and it was the Guantánamo Bay of pizza.