Homeboy Sandman recorded and released his first EP, Nourishment, in March 2007. His debut album, entitled Nourishment (Second Helpings), was released in August 2007. In early 2008, Homeboy Sandman's work began to be featured on underground radio programs the Squeeze Radio Show on WKCR 89.9 FM and the Halftime Radio Program on WNYU 89.1 FM in New York. In June 2008, he was featured in Source Magazine's "Unsigned Hype" column.
His second album, Actual Factual Pterodactyl was acclaimed upon its release in August 2008. The album received an entry in XXL's Chairman's Choice column, which praised Homeboy Sandman's "sharp lyrics and irresistibly melodic flow, which, together, form an elastic instrument few MCs can match." Actual Factual Pterodactyl received critical acclaim in a multitude of other print and online publications, including Blender Magazine, Beyond Race Magazine, Okayplayer.com and MSN.com. At the end of 2008, Homeboy Sandman was named "Best Hip Hop Act in NYC 2008" by New York Press. Recently his music has received rotation on NYC's Power 105.1 FM and Hot 97.1 FM, the city's #1 Hip Hop and R&B radio station, as well as airplay on Spitkicker Radio (Channel 65 on XM Satellite Radio), DJ Premier's "Live From HeadQCourterz" (Sirius Satellite Radio's #1 ranked Hip Hop show) and BBC 1Xtra's Hip Hop M1X (Hosted by DJ Sarah Love).
In addition to his studio releases, Homeboy Sandman has garnered attention for his live performances. From January 2008 to August 2009, Homeboy Sandman served as the host of “ALL THAT! Hip Hop, Poetry and Jazz” at the Nuyorican Poets Café, New York City's longest running open mic session (originally hosted by Hip Hop icon Bobbito García). He has performed at the biggest hip hop shows around the country, including the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas, the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival in Brooklyn, New York, the Rock the Bells hip hop festival in Long Island, New York, the A3C Hip Hop Festival in Atlanta, Georgia and New York City's CMJ Music Marathon. Homeboy Sandman has recorded video interviews with other performers at his live shows, which are captured in his YouTube video series "Homeboy Sandman presents Live From...".
In addition to his own releases, Homeboy Sandman has appeared on records by other artists, frequently with members of the AOK Collective, with whom he is affiliated. He recently appeared on Fresh Daily's 2009 album The Gorgeous Killer: In Crimes of Passion and the 2008 album For Your Consideration released by P.SO (formerly P. Casso). Homeboy Sandman collaborated with both Fresh Daily and P.SO for the song "Get On Down," which is featured on Sonic Smash, the album released in 2009 by music producer DJ Spinna.[8] Homeboy Sandman has also laid down tracks for a series of features with RIDES Magazine. The track that Homeboy Sandman created for the Loud.com challenge, "Gun Control," was cited as one of the Top 25 Songs of 2009 by Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg.
On June 1, 2010, Homeboy Sandman released his third album, The Good Sun, which features production from 2 Hungry Bros, Ski Beats, Thievin' Stephen, DJ Spinna, Psycho Les (The Beatnuts) and Core Rhythm, among others. The first single from The Good Sun was "Angels with Dirty Faces," produced by J57. In September 2010, Homeboy Sandman released his first official video for The Good Sun for the track, "The Essence".
In late 2010, Homeboy Sandman was featured as the coach in an episode of MTV's Made, which premiered in October 2010.
In August 2011, Homeboy Sandman signed with Stones Throw Records and released his debut project, Subject: Matter EP, with the California-based record label on January 24, 2012. Homeboy Sandman released his second EP with Stones Throw Records, titled Chimera in April 2012 and on September 18, 2012, released his debut full-length LP with Stones Throw entitled First of a Living Breed. The album featured production from Oddisee, J57, 6th Sense, RTNC and long-time production partners 2 Hungry Bros., along with label mates Jonwayne and Oh No, amongst others.
In 2014, Homeboy Sandman released the EP, White Sands, which was produced by Paul White. Nate Patrin of Pitchfork commented that the producer and rapper had "a mutually beneficial set of styles" in a positive review. In that year, Homeboy Sandman released the album, Hallways.
In the wake of the Donald Sterling scandal, Homeboy Sandman wrote for Gawker an op-ed called "Black People are Cowards," which attracted more than 1.3 million views in the first seven days of its publication.
In 2015, Homeboy Sandman released a collaborative EP with Aesop Rock, titled Lice. In 2016, he released the album, Kindness for Weakness, which included Edan-produced "Talking (Bleep)". In that year, he released a collaborative EP with Aesop Rock, titled Lice Two: Still Buggin'.
In 2019, Homeboy Sandman announced he had signed a new deal with Mello Music Group and released the new single "West Coast" produced by Aesop Rock to celebrate the new label signing.
Homeboy Sandman's first album on Mello Music Group, “Dusty,” was released on October 18, 2019. Production was handled entirely by Mono En Stereo. Dusty garnered positive reviews from music critics. AllMusic writer Paul Simpson praised Mono En Stereo's soundscape of "laid-back, ambling jazz and funk grooves" for complimenting Sandman's "conversational, matter-of-fact rhymes" throughout the album, concluding that "Dusty is another winning set of pointed observations from Sandman, who effortlessly unloads his thoughts without seeming like a burden on the listener."
Homeboy Sandman followed up “Dusty” with his 2020 album “Don’t Feed The Monster” produced by Quelle Chris. “Don’t Feed The Monster” was listed in NPR's top 50 albums of 2020. Homeboy Sandman would later receive a pair of awards for music videos that accompanied the album. He received a UK Music Video award for “Monument” (directed by Pavel Buryak) in 2021 and later won Best Foreign Documentary at Rome Film Awards 2022 for Don’t Look Down Video (directed by Robert Mayer aka Photo Rob).
At the beginning of 2021, Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman released their single “Ask Anyone,” which was featured on FIFA 21 soundtrack. Following the release Homeboy Sandman announced his EP Anjelitu which was produced entirely by Aesop Rock. Released in August 2021, Anjelitu marked Homeboy Sandman's third studio project on Mello Music Group. Okayplayer highlighted Anjelitu as one of the best Hip-Hop projects of 2021. Pete Rock would later give praise to “Go Hard” from Anjelitu. At the end of 2021, Homeboy Sandman garnered unexpected attention after Doja Cat saluted the emcee as “One of my favorite rappers” on Instagram live.
Homeboy Sandman's tenth studio album, There in Spirit, was released on February 25, 2022. That same year, he released the mixtape I Can't Sell These for free on Bandcamp, due in part to an inability to clear the various samples used in the music. Music critic Robert Christgau soon hailed it as "the finest album of one of hip-hop's most prolific careers", giving it an "A" grade.
Homeboy Sandman revitalized his acclaimed Anjelitu EP, by releasing the Anjelitu Deluxe which included two new tracks as well as Aesop Rock's instrumentals from the project. In 2022, Rhymesayers released all three of Homeboy Sandman and Aesop Rock's Lice albums on digital streaming platforms. Homeboy Sandman's Deca-produced eleventh studio album “Still Champion” was released on November 11, 2022, following the pair's 19-stop co-headlining tour. “Still Champion” reached #24 on the iTunes Hip-Hop charts and Riff Magazine included the project in their top 20 Hip-Hop albums of 2022.
Homeboy Sandman collaborated with Oakland-based nonprofit organization Oakstop Alliance on the album “Royalty Summit,” released on December 23, 2022. Royalty Summit is the debut release from Oakstop Alliance’s Oakland Resident music initiative. Homeboy Sandman was planning the west coast run for his There In Spirit Tour when longtime friend and Oakstop Alliance Executive Director Damon Johnson pitched him with the concept. The 12-track album was recorded over 3 days in Oakland as a residency collaboration between Homeboy Sandman, and over 20 Oakland musical artists and professionals. On Christmas Day in 2022, Homeboy Sandman announced the debut full-length release for his label Dirty Looks, titled “12 Days of Christmas & Dia De Los Reyes.” Homeboy Sandman rolled out one song from the project each day until the full album’s release on January 6, 2023.
In August 2023, Homeboy Sandman connected with New York beatmaker Mono En Stereo–whom the emcee collaborated with on past albums Kool Herc: Fertile Crescent and Dusty–for his studio album “Rich” released via Dirty Looks. The album garnered critical attention from Pitchfork, Vibe Magazine, HipHopDX, and more. Homeboy Sandman later released "I Can't Sell These Either" in November 2023, continuing the "I Can't Sell These" mixtape series started in 2022.
Buttermilk
Homeboy Sandman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Johnny Appleseed
Planting overseas
Bagging breezies out of Japanese magazines
Who the major league
Milk of Magnes(ia) magnifique
Who the man to see
Set to make a scene
Emcees
Y'all is mini mes
Kenny Gs
This is veni vidi vic(i)
This is Kitty Genovenese's energy
The is Middle East's Queens Embassy
This is kerosene
Heresies you ain't never seen
Sand got the catalog
I'm clad in the camoflauge
Mash with the capricorn, atom bomb, amazon broad
With the bra with the cannonballs
With the bon bon looking brolic like she borrowed it from Barry Bonds
Dog I'm the doggone don
Rep the cause at all costs
Call the sarge
Get the comandante calling all cars
Get the cattle prods charged
Get the catapaults launched
Be alarmed
We at large
WE CAN MAKE IT PRETTY BABY
WE CAN MAKE IT IF WE TRY
Puerto Rock
Thicken up the plot
Do the boy got some pinosh
Turn it up another notch
Might end up in a menage
There's a million us and ours up in arms
We ain't talking writing blogs dog
Talking dropping bombs
I don't even fuck with songs
This is psalms
We the renaissance
We at odds with the Pentagon
They decepticons
They the demagogues
Better pray to holy god keep your guard dog
Before the pull your card dog
From the valleys and the peaks
To the alleys and the streets
For the cabbies and the priests
And the nannies and the trannies and the freaks
Think I give a muthafuck about a grammy
I got granny tryna eat
I got family where the camera's on the scene
And the calvary's canvassing the scene for deceased
Can it be
That the reason that the city never sleeps
Is the sirens and the screeches and the screams never cease
WE CAN MAKE IT PRETTY BABY
WE CAN MAKE IT IF WE TRY
Never say never
Never late
Never lame
Never bend
Never break
Never played
Never dazed
Never phased
Never afraid
Never flake
Never fake
Never in it for the fame
Shit I'm in it for the faith
If you in it for the same
If you willing to defend it in the center of the flame
If you in to represent with every sentence that you say
Every syllable you spray
Then you safe
'Cause you saved
If you isn't you's a waste
You's a nigger
You's a slave
You's a snake
Shit, you oughta be ashamed
You's about to get disgraced and erased
You's about to get defaced to your face
Go away
Where to stay is in your place
Out my space
You can call it playa hate
But I'm finished playing games
Shit I still be playing tapes, it's insane
Till the 40 days of rain, stay in shape
Stay the same
The song "Buttermilk" by Homeboy Sandman is a series of commentary on a plethora of topics. Starting with the reference to Ovaltine and Johnny Appleseed, it seems that the rapper is alluding to history being lost and the false narratives that people have been fed. He talks about planting seeds overseas and luring women from Japanese magazines. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for colonization and the use of propaganda to lure people to new lands. The mood then changes, and Sandman talks about the Middle-East Queens Embassy and the energy of Kitty Genovese. Here, it appears that he is talking about the lack of justice in America and the need for change. He then goes on to use the metaphor of fire and kerosene, possibly suggesting that the current system is fueling the flames of rebellion.
The second verse sees the rapper taking on a more political stance. He talks about the many people who are up in arms, not just writing blogs but dropping bombs. He speaks to the fact that this is not just a battle of words but of action. Through the use of "we," he highlights that this fight for change is bigger than one person or group. He denounces the falsity of the music industry and its sole focus on the Grammy. He emphasizes that there are bigger things at stake, including the survival of his family and community. The verse ends with the idea that if you're in for a good cause and willing to defend it, then you're safe.
Line by Line Meaning
Who's the Ovaltine
Who is the person in control
Johnny Appleseed
Someone who works to spread their message all over the world
Planting overseas
Working tirelessly to spread their message in foreign countries
Bagging breezies out of Japanese magazines
Attracting foreign women found in magazines
Who the major league
Who are the ones in control
Milk of Magnes(ia) magnifique
Essential, life-giving substance
Who the man to see
Who is the person with the power to make change
Set to make a scene
Ready to cause a commotion
Have a seat
Relax and take a moment
Emcees
Rappers
Y'all is mini mes
You are all mere copies of others
Kenny Gs
Smooth jazz musicians with little substance to their music
This is veni vidi vic(i)
This is a conquest that has been completed
This is Kitty Genovenese's energy
This is the unfocused energy of people not making an impact
The is Middle East's Queens Embassy
Representing the many voices of the Middle East in one place
This is kerosene
This is volatile and explosive
Heresies you ain't never seen
Revolutionary ideas that have not been thought of before
Sand got the catalog
The singer has extensive knowledge and experience
I'm clad in the camoflauge
The singer is dressed for action and ready to blend in
Mash with the capricorn, atom bomb, amazon broad
The artist is mixing the unexpected to create something new and dangerous
With the bra with the cannonballs
The artist is confident and bold
With the bon bon looking brolic like she borrowed it from Barry Bonds
The artist is surrounded by powerful and attractive people
Dog I'm the doggone don
I am the top dog in this situation
Rep the cause at all costs
I will fight for what I believe in no matter the cost
Call the sarge
Get the leader in charge
Get the comandante calling all cars
Get everyone prepared for action
Get the cattle prods charged
Get the weapons ready
Get the catapaults launched
Attack with full force
Be alarmed
Get ready for danger
WE CAN MAKE IT PRETTY BABY
WE CAN MAKE IT IF WE TRY
We can achieve anything if we put in effort
Puerto Rock
Representing Puerto Rico's voice
Thicken up the plot
Make the story more intense
Do the boy got some pinosh
Does the artist have what it takes
Turn it up another notch
Push harder
Might end up in a menage
Might end up in a sexual encounter with multiple partners
There's a million us and ours up in arms
There are many of us fighting for the same cause
We ain't talking writing blogs dog
We are not simply talking about our feelings on the internet
Talking dropping bombs
Talking about making a real impact
I don't even fuck with songs
I don't care about making music for the sake of it
This is psalms
This is deeply spiritual and meaningful
We the renaissance
We are part of a cultural rebirth
We at odds with the Pentagon
We are in direct conflict with the establishment
They decepticons
They are deceiving and manipulative
They the demagogues
They are dangerous and manipulative leaders
Better pray to holy god keep your guard dog
Be careful and stay alert
Before the pull your card dog
Before you are exposed as a fraud
From the valleys and the peaks
To the alleys and the streets
For the cabbies and the priests
And the nannies and the trannies and the freaks
Reaching everyone, no matter their station in life
Think I give a muthafuck about a grammy
I got granny tryna eat
I don't care about awards, I care about helping my family survive
I got family where the camera's on the scene
And the calvary's canvassing the scene for deceased
I have loved ones in dangerous situations
Can it be
That the reason that the city never sleeps
Is the sirens and the screeches and the screams never cease
Is the reason the city never rests because of the constant danger and chaos
Never say never
Never late
Never lame
Never bend
Never break
Never played
Never dazed
Never phased
Never afraid
Never flake
Never fake
Never in it for the fame
Always stay true to oneself and never give up
Shit I'm in it for the faith
I am doing this for what I believe in
If you in it for the same
If you willing to defend it in the center of the flame
If you in to represent with every sentence that you say
Every syllable you spray
Then you safe
'Cause you saved
If you are in it for the right reasons and willing to fight for them, you will be safe in the end
If you isn't you's a waste
You's a nigger
You's a slave
You's a snake
Shit, you oughta be ashamed
You's about to get disgraced and erased
You's about to get defaced to your face
If you don't stand up for what you believe in, you are a waste and will be exposed
Go away
Where to stay is in your place
Out my space
You can call it playa hate
But I'm finished playing games
Get out of my way, I have important work to do and I won't be distracted
Shit I still be playing tapes, it's insane
Till the 40 days of rain, stay in shape
Stay the same
I will continue making music until the end, never changing who I am
Contributed by Jeremiah B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.