video review: 'dusty' by homeboy sandman

Well, this was underrated as all hell and I'm thrilled I finally got to it - next up... hmm, I think it's going to be L'Orange next, so stay tuned!

album review: 'dusty' by homeboy sandman

Not going to lie, this was the album that inspired me to do a full week of underground hip-hop reviews.

And when I say that, it's more of a combination of things than this album directly, even though Homeboy Sandman has been on my radar for a while now and I actually covered him briefly on the Trailing Edge last year. And I've long regretted that being my public introduction to discussing Homeboy Sandman, because I'm not sure it reflected how much I genuinely loved his work when I did my deep dive in his back catalog. To me I put him in a similar category to Sage Francis and Brother Ali, an older guy who is just as much of a bruising, socially conscious MC with uniquely creative wordplay, but also a fan of kookier flows and melodies, and with a much more robust sense of humour. Like most artists in this fringe of the underground, he can be a bit of an acquired taste, but if you're fond of acts like Aesop Rock - with whom he's worked frequently - you'd probably like a lot of his work, particularly albums Actual Factual Pterodactyl from 2008, First Of A Living Breed from 2012, and Kindness For Weakness from 2016.

That said, when he put the EP Humble Pi last year with producer Edan... I still wasn't really crazy about it, and I still place a lot of my frustrations on the production. Don't get me wrong, I like my lo-fi boom-bap, but Homeboy Sandman has the sort of compositional acumen that allows him to build more developed songs, and the dustier production didn't always flatter his melodic sensibility as strongly. And that is why I was a little nervous about his newest project literally called Dusty, produced entirely by Mono En Stereo who in recent years has done a lot of work for Your Old Droog, another act that I should probably get to covering at length at some point. But hey, it was short, and I had already heard songs that were as quotable and hilarious as ever, so what did we get with Dusty?

trailing edge - episode 010 - october 2018 (VIDEO)

So I imagine this could actually do well, given that there are a few reviews folks have been asking plenty for here, and I did get long-winded at points for the better. Enjoy!