Anjelitu: Album Review
Homeboy Sandman is an enigma. His voice stutters over the beat and he always sounds like he’s trying to catch up to a runaway train. He tackles topics you rarely hear in hip-hop, like vegetarianism and how jeans fit. There’s no artist out there like him, which can work to his advantage at times, and other times is his greatest downfall. On his newest EP, Anjelitu, Sandman brings together a variety of different styles, showcasing his many strengths while staying away from his weaknesses.
The project begins with the track “Go Hard” which operates as a bit of a thesis for Sandman’s style. It’s both a brag track and a deep reflection on his life experience. He spits, “I soak in sun, breathe out sky” right before stating “I’m like Fred Hampton chewing on rattlesnake.” Each bar is precise like he’s cutting the beat with a razor-sharp knife. He starts bars a millisecond late, creating syncopated rhythms that always seem to find impossible pockets in the beats.
Sandman’s style is both a throwback and a lurch forward. He raps with the flow of a 90s legend like Slick Rick, but covers topics that most rappers today wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. This creates a constant push and pull between the conventional and the bizarre. The track “Lice Team Baby” featuring the legendary rapper, and the sole producer of this project, Aesop Rock exemplifies this dichotomy. Both rappers fit more words in a bar than almost anyone on earth, but thematically it’s as if they’re freestyling. They talk of swordfish, hot rods, and janitors, with not much tying these themes together.
The one theme that permeates through this entire project is vegetarian/veganism. If you don’t like hearing about veganism, this album might not be for you. From the album opener, he makes his stance clear, stating, “I am back off of meat and dairy, think I might do it till I’m dead and buried.” He takes this subject and pushes it to the extreme on tracks like “No Beef” which has the hook “You can keep that beef, keep that flesh Keep that meat, keep that death.” If that sounds corny to you, it kind of is. Nothing about the track is trying to be cool or play to a broader audience, but that is the beauty of this EP.
Homeboy Sandman has been making music for over a decade and he does not seem to care about reaching any type of broader approval on this EP. Each song is pushing the limits of hip-hop conceptually. On the song “Cow’s Milk” he spits “And I drink cow's milk Milk from cows I know I'm not like a baby cow in any way I drink cow's milk anyway,” which is barely coherent. In context with the vegetarian/vegan theme of the rest of the project, it makes less sense. But, that confusion only adds to the charm of the record. It confuses at every turn, right when you think you have a handle on Sandman, he lurches in another direction.
Anjelitu feels low-stakes, but it never loses your attention. Coming in under 20 minutes, this EP is a fun ride through an abstract mind state.