Absolutely loving the new Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman (aka LICE) EP, "Miami Lice: Season Four"

https://aesoprockhomeboysandman.bandcamp.com/album/miami-lice-season-four

I'm not a huge Homeboy Sandman fan but he works really well with Aesop. Production on this one is great.

#HipHop #NewMusic2026 #AesopRock #HomeboySandman

#NowPlaying #Rap #HipHop #HomeboySandman #Sonnyjim

"Ain't no human rights / just what humans write"

https://homeboysandman.bandcamp.com/album/soli-deo-gloria

🔊 #NowPlaying on #fip

Homeboy Sandman & Jozef Van Wissem:
🎵 Unraveling (feat. Jozef Van Wissem)

#HomeboySandman #JozefVanWissem

https://homeboysandman.bandcamp.com/track/unraveling-ft-jozef-van-wissem

https://open.spotify.com/track/1vVm6GSGb0Dd54RdHsPUgd

All songs played on #fip as a #Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3esxovxKyF5QcUG9WMo2Kv

NOTE: PATREON SUPPORTERS RECEIVED ACCESS TO THIS REVIEW ON August 3rd, 2024.

This album was released on July 8th this year. As I recently said on Instagram, Sleep Sinatra is perhaps my favorite rapper alive right now, so when I read the Bandcamp description for this project and saw that it was being promoted as Sleep’s most personal work yet, I was more than intrigued. Everything about the way this album was presented to me was appealing. I love the simplicity of the album cover. It just looks so underground. I love the aesthetic. I was also excited when I learned that this is completely self produced. The last self-produced Sleep Sinatra album we got was DIVINENATION, which is one of my favorite albums from him. I kinda knew at a certain point that I was gonna love this album, but it surpassed even my expectations.

The album starts with a really cool intro called A Living Testimony. I love the instrumental here so much. It sounds the way the album cover looks to me. I think this was the perfect way to prepare listeners for what follows this track. The way the song’s name is repeated after every line is really cool. As the title indicates, Sleep is really taking us to where he’s from with this project.

I love everything about this track. The way the instrumental kinda dismantles itself and winds down as the song is ending is really cool. Track 2 is called Regina’s Son, and this is the song that convinced me to buy the album before I even heard anything further down the tracklist. This shit is fucking amazing, man. I’ve always liked the beats I’ve heard from Sleep, but it feels like he leveled up here. The vocal sample that he looped up here is fire. Sleep is in peak condition on the mic as well.

I thought the first verse was fire already, but then he came back in for a second verse that’s somehow way stronger. He absolutely slaughtered this shit.

I felt it, man. The song is just so soulful. I think it’s amazing. The following track, The Spirit, is somehow even better. The beat here sounds like some underground lo-fi G-Funk, and it’s amazing. It sounds like nighttime in the form of music. I love how hard-hitting the snare is too, and Sleep sounds so fucking good over it. The first verse is fire.

Once again, the second verse is incredible as well. The song doesn’t throw any curveballs at the listener. It’s just a fire beat with top tier rapping. This is a far cry from the off-kilter, experimental, niche listen that was Memory(ummm…). This is far more accessible than most of the stuff on that project. I love both. This shit is dope as fuck. Track 3 is called H.O.P.E.

https://youtu.be/5ex9m4w3lQc?si=J-xGrGyxc2lydRdD

This song really resonated with me on a deep, emotional level. The acronym in the title, “hold on, pain ends,” was written on the wall in the mental hospital in which I stayed for three months in 2018. When I heard Sleep say it on this track, it shook me. Especially because of the haunting vocal sample that Sleep looped up for the instrumental. It sounds like my mind state at that time in the form of music. It also goes back to that “bruised” concept that I mentioned in the Memory(ummm…) review though. I mean, just look at this…

It was one of the most difficult times in my life, and this song really made the memories rush back through my head. It nearly brought me to tears to be honest. The song is fucking incredible. I love it. The barrage of highlights just doesn’t end. Track 5 is called Angel Numbers, and it’s fucking awesome. I love this beat so fucking much, man. It’s so good. Sleep absolutely snapped over it too.

His flow is so fucking good over this beat, man. The second verse is also really fantastic, and I even love the hook on this track.

I love every single aspect of this track. It’s dope as fuck. It’s followed by yet another major highlight called TotalEclipse (BLACKOUT). It features the one and only Homeboy Sandman. The beat here is fucking incredible, man. This is probably the trippiest beat on the whole album. I love the drum pattern here so much, and that vocal sample is amazing. I feel like Sleep went extra hard on this track specifically because of Homeboy Sandman’s presence. He absolutely slaughtered this track.

Homeboy Sandman sounds so good on the second verse too. Their flows are completely different on this track. I don’t know whose I like more. I think my preference would change depending on my mood.

Even the hook that Sleep spits after the guest verse is fire. I love everything about this song. It’s amazing. The following track is called 20/20 Hindsight, and it’s my favorite song on the album. This shit is beautiful. I absolutely love the production, whose tone matches that of the lyricism perfectly. Sleep dives into certain relationships in his life in brutal detail. He gets so specific, and it’s almost unsettling because I feel like I shouldn’t be hearing something so personal. It damn near feels like an invasion of privacy.

I’m not sure who either of these verses are directed towards, but they’re clearly very important in Sleep’s life. The second verse is fantastic, and I really love the hook here too.

The song is incredible. It’s followed by a song that is just as good, and arguably better called Kayla Mae.

https://youtu.be/hWBaMNUT8-0?si=kLTic9PcOL9tfICH

The production here is jazzy and heavy, and the lyricism evokes the warm feeling of infatuation when you’re with someone you love romantically.

I also love the way he just repeats the name “Kayla Mae” at the end of the song. The whole thing is one verse, and it’s just barely over 2 minutes long, but it doesn’t feel too scant at all. I think this is a top 3 track on the album for me. I love it. Track 9 is called Nights at the Lunar Lounge, and it features a singer named Cecilia. I don’t love the instrumental on this one quite as much as all the others, but it’s still very good. The opening verse from Cecilia is pretty nice too. It took some time for this track to grow on me a bit because the subject matter isn’t super intriguing to me. I think it’s so well executed that I can’t help but enjoy it though.

This isn’t one of my favorite tracks on the album, but I still think it’s really good. I fuck with it. The following track is called Ghosts on Baldwin. This one has another pretty soulful beat that I like a lot. The vocal sample is nice, and I like the minimal percussion. There’s one verse from Sleep on this song, and it’s excellent.

This somehow feels like the shortest song on the album, even though the tracks surrounding it are technically shorter. I think the beat is really nice, and I love the verse. I can’t really explain why this one didn’t blow me away like damn near every other track did, but I obviously still really fuck with it. It’s dope. The penultimate track is a highlight called F.E.A.R. I really love these acronym songs Sleep likes to do. I’m wondering if S.L.E.E.P. from Incorruptible Saints was written around the same time. Anyway, the production here is amazing. Somehow this track feels way longer than the preceding song. I think it’s probably because it’s so much more uptempo. It’s one of the most fast-paced songs on the project. Sleep bodied the verse.

I really love the way the verse ends too…

I really love Sleep’s vocals on the outro. He’s been experimenting with singing more and more, and I love it. He has a really smooth voice. I mean, he’s not gonna blow anyone away with his vocal ability, but I feel the soul in his performance. Speaking of soul, I actually got some old school Ab-Soul vibes from this track. Emphasis on “old school.” I’m talkin’ Long Term era Ab-Soul. Anyway, this shit is fire. I love it. The closing track is one final highlight called Spectral. This has one of the trippiest instrumentals on the whole project. I love it. Needless to say, the verse from Sleep was quite enjoyable for me.

I love the outro too. Something about the word “energy” just sounds good in a rap song. I’ve heard a few rappers use it lately, and it always sounds dope. I love it. Anyway, this was a phenomenal way to close the album. It’s fire.

Goddamn. This shit is fucking incredible. Last year Sleep had my album of the year with Incorruptible Saints, which I said was one of the best albums I’d ever heard in my life. I think The Spirit of Baldwin Ave is the best album I’ve ever heard from Sleep. This dude is seriously on another level, man. This is a top 3 album of the 2020’s so far in my opinion. I don’t know if I said this in my Memory(ummm…) review or not, but Sleep is my favorite rapper right now. The consistency and high quality is awe inspiring. This is my type of album. I love when artists make shit like this. Sleep put all of himself in this one. He’s never been afraid to get personal in his music; he has a whole series called Post Traumatic Growth—by the way, the second entry in that series is fire and has grown on me immensely over the months since its release. This album here is on another level though. On Twitter, I saw Sleep say that he’d be cool with this being his last album, and I totally understand why. This could’ve been a self titled album. As a listener, I felt closer to Sleep than ever after hearing this. Also, the production is incredible. I just realized I’ve only really been talking about the lyrical content, but this album is amazing sonically as well. I love SINAI.’s production so much, and Sleep fits over it beautifully. This kinda stuff is why Sleep has become one of my favorite artists of all time since I started listening in 2020. I live for this shit. Do not sleep on it. I think it’s dope as fuck.

Favorite Song: 20/20 Hindsight
Least Favorite Song: Nights at the Lunar Lounge

96

https://focushiphop.com/2024/08/06/album-review-sleep-sinatra-the-spirit-of-baldwin-ave/

#Cecilia #HomeboySandman #SINAI_ #SleepSinatra