“#NeverUseTheInternetAgain” is a timely song that rails against the temptations of the digital world, summed up in the lines “anything to get a fucking like / one day I decided I should get a fucking life.” The video follows the pair around NYC chanting the track’s message, and eventually finds the duo bashing computer screens & burning iPhones…
Edan is the cult New York-by-way-of-Boston producer, DJ, and rapper whose 2005 masterpiece Beauty and the Beat is an enduring favorite among hip-hop fans. Though he’s popped up to perform and release the odd mix since then, this release is his first album in thirteen years. Queens MC Homeboy Sandman has released several albums on Stones Throw over the years, most recently putting out a pair of EPs with Aesop Rock.
The genesis of Sandman and Edan’s partnership goes back several years, to when a friend told Sandman to check out Edan’s live show. It blew Sandman’s mind, and the two finally connected when they shared a bill at Manhattan venue Santos Party House.
Their collaboration took off from there: whenever they could find a few open hours, they’d write and record in Edan’s Brooklyn studio. The outcome of those sessions is this new album, on which Sandman’s goofy and self-effacing but incisive raps are a perfect foil for Edan’s beats.
And what exactly is Humble Pi? “We’re serving humble pi,” says Sandman. “Humble math. Pi is a magic number.” Magic and humility, he says, can coexist. “From time to time folks need a couple slices of humble pie as a reminder of real magic.”
