Homeboy Sandman never minces words and that remained true during an interview with WatchLOUD. During the conversation, he derided the label of “conscious rap” – which is often applied to his music – as racist and said that Black Lives Matter could stand to broaden its scope.
Sandman said that the term “conscious” is only applied to black rappers as a means of limiting them:
“I think it’s used in a racist way. Look at a term like “conscious.”…I don’t see no one calling Macklemore a conscious MC…because white people are allowed to be however they wanna be.”
That lack of labels extended to his thoughts on hip-hop currently.
“There’s plenty of hip-hop out there for me to love… I love ill records. I’m not gonna allow rap to be defined for me…I think it’s kind of a misnomer for something that isn’t ill to be considered hip-hop. That’s like sitting down being called gymnastics to me. Sitting down became gymnastics when somebody got up and flipped.”
Later in the interview, Sandman discussed his views on the Black Lives Matter movement. Surprisingly, considering his previous statements on wax that Americans should stop complaining, he is all for it. In fact, he thinks BLM should do more than just fight when someone is killed by police.
“It seems that Black lives only matter when they’re completely gone. So they’re saying do whatever you want to Black people; lock ’em up, clown ’em here, clown ’em there, but don’t actually kill them, which is the same as slavery…You can herb them all day, and that’s what I’m not into…This country was founded on ‘Give me liberty or give me death!’ There have been all different kinds of cultures and societies that have said it’s worse to get herbed than to die, because you can live without getting herbed. It is possible to live without getting herbed, but it’s not possible to not die, so what’s a worse fate?”
Homeboy Sandman believes in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Not Getting Herbed. Check out the rest of the interview over at WatchLOUD.
