GREATEST: Iddris Sandu
The journey of building computers to empowering communities through coding.
Iddris Sandu is a tech-savvy, socially conscious man, son, brother and community leader from California. He is the new American standard, the new cool. He’s an offbeat architect, the Grandmaster Flash of Generation Z, a technology insider—and he’s doing it for the culture.
Born in Accra, Ghana, Sandu’s family moved to the sunny streets of Compton before he was two years old. When he was 13, he landed an internship at Google and by 15 he was recognized by President Barack Obama with a prestigious scholar award. In May, at 22 years old, he became one of the youngest commencement speakers in New York University history when he gave the keynote address for the Black Student Union’s Black Graduation Commencement. He doesn’t seem shocked by it all, either. It was written for him: the hustle of a hungry immigrant, mixed with the warm, precious vibes of California, mixed with unimpeachable American drive—it’s in his blood.
Sandu invents equations to explain his ideologies. He creates funky ways of spelling certain words (inner-standing, algo-rhythm) to ensure that he “carries good energy and high frequencies” at all times. Here, Sandu opens up about falling in love with the Compton public library, owning technology in low-income communities, black intellectual property and the future intersections of music, fashion and technology.
How was growing up in Compton?
Compton was great—we stayed in mostly. [When] I started going to the Compton public library, I started to fall in love with books. It became a safe home for me. It became a place where I could go and read books and just imagine new worlds and imagine different ways of doing things. I came to fall in love with that library.
Beautiful. I remember the first time I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I got it from the public library, and it blew my mind. Do you remember some of the first library books that impacted you?
Stories that appeared in comic books are really what I fell in love with. Calvin and Hobbes, Scholastic I Spy books, A Series of Unfortunate Events. I loved the idea of sci-fi from a young age, being able to escape into a world so vast and large.
Did your tech interests peak at the library, too?
Being a kid, I was always fascinated with computers in general— really, mainframe computers—and growing up, that’s what I was exposed to. I remember at home we had spare parts. I would mess with the spare parts and reassemble them and look at the fans spin when the computer needed more energy. How [the fans] would spin was very interesting to me. How the cooling system worked, how the CPU worked, how the GPU worked, how the RAM worked. It wasn’t until I watched Steve Jobs’ keynote in January 2007, when he unveiled the iPhone, that I really got interested in technology. I really wanted to learn how it was built, and how they created such a powerful device in such a small form factor.
Do you have any older siblings who were also interested in dissecting computers?
Growing up I had two elder brothers, but they weren’t really tech-savvy. One of them was into making music and drawing; the other knew from a young age that he wanted to be in the military. I’m an indigo kid. I’m very different from everyone else in my family.
What’s your mom like?
My mom is very centered, very shy. She mostly raised me by herself. Just the memories I have of my dad—he was very dominant, very ego-driven, very serious and stern all the time. Almost militant. I have three younger sisters, one of them is like my twin. She’s 14 years old and is so tech-savvy. I see the same things I saw in myself in her. She knows how to code by herself, she knows how to fix computers by herself. She’s crazy.
Is she excited to show you things and ask questions?
She really looks up to me. The value she can get from inner-standing that being intellectual, being a programmer, being a techie, is the new cool—because of the things that we are doing right now, to not only democratize the economy, but to make technology accessible as well as cool—she’ll grow up in a world where people will look at her for her skill sets. We will break the glass ceiling.
Going off that idea, Nipsey Hussle wanted to brand you as the new cool—the “hood version of Mark Zuckerberg.” In 2044, what does the hood look like? Is it smarter? Are there fewer players on the hoop court and more programmers in the computer lab? What images or scenes do you see for the future of black American culture when the tech builders become more popular than the rap singers?
Let’s go through history real quick. Let’s go back to Grandmaster Flash. Hip-hop itself is like a startup company. We took an existing product, the early turntable, and we reverse-engineered the turntable to work for us. We took an existing technology and created hip-hop. We now have this trillion-dollar culture. Just imagine kids being able to do that on an exponential level. Being able to learn technology and being able to apply it just the same way that Grandmaster Flash re-engineered the turntables to work for him, and to DJ for people that connected with him. Just imagine what the kids also might do on an exponential level if they are exposed to technology. To go forth and create new and interesting cultures.
Hip-hop itself is like a startup company. We took an existing product, the early turntable, and we reverse-engineered the turntable to work for us. We took an existing technology and created hip-hop.
Iddris Sandu
So, you see the biggest cultural breakthrough in tech being through music?
Absolutely. Hip-hop is an equation. HIP = HOP. Think of HIP standing for High Intellectual Property, and HOP stands for High Output Production. This is how I can show the youth that the tools we need to be successful in a tech-driven world are already here. HIP = HOP, the equation, is what a lot of companies that exist now apply—their culture, their way of doing things. I feel like that’s what we have yet to see, especially within hip-hop culture, just taking advantage of the resources that are here and being able to patent and copyright and trademark everything behind it. So, let me give you an example.
Apple has HIP: 2,300 patents. Their HOP is more that 224 products. IBM has HIP: 9,300 patents. Their HOP is more than 1,000. Sony has HIP: 132,882 patents. And their HOP is 2,345 products. Proof. That’s the equation in the culture that we haven’t really taken advantage of. The more you’re able to own your intellectual property, the more leverage you will have in product creation.
That’s really where I see the intersection of music, fashion and hip-hop, or culture, and technology all intersecting. Because very often we create trends, we create new ways of doing things, new ways of talking, new ways of thinking and new ways of dressing, but we never own. We are never at the top that owns. We are influencing the existing product. We are taking Gucci and making it a multi-billion-dollar company. We are taking all these other companies, like Polo, companies that have already been existing and created, we are elevating their company to a whole ’nother level and not getting the credit for it, and not getting the ability to own for ourselves. Really getting to the point of not only financial literacy but also generational wealth.
That’s why I see technology in Compton in the next 30 years, technology in Boyle Heights, technology in Africa, technology in low-income communities or less-developed communities. I see us creating groundbreaking technologies, and I see us owning the technology. Being good at owning, and not just being good at using that which is already created.
When you’re talking about future jobs, and younger people owning their things, owning the intellectual property, can you say anything that exists right now, like tools or training, that young people of color and their parents can get to empower them? Does anything exist right now to help achieve the dream that you are talking about?
It’s interesting that you say that.
I’m asking because a lot of people don’t even know where to start.
Absolutely. I’m working on a project that I can’t disclose yet, to offer our youth an opportunity to be at the forefront of technology that is created by them and curated by them. That’s all I can say on that. But, before we can build anything, we need to inner-stand the damage that has been done. When they talk about self-healing, they say that the first step is to acknowledge it. When we look historically at technology, we haven’t been at the forefront of creating anything. There is not a culture more consumer-driven that has produced so little. So, before we can even create anything, or talk about creating anything, we need to start with the acknowledgment process.
On that thought, let’s talk about infrastructure.
The thing with tech is that you can hold it. You can hold a product. But you can’t hold software—that’s why it’s called ‘software.’ Hardware is called hardware because you can actually hold it, it is physical. It starts with acknowledgment, and then we can start building products.
Being intellectual, being a programmer, being a techie, is the new cool—because of the things that we are doing right now, to not only democratize the economy but to make technology accessible as well as cool.
Iddris Sandu
When I hear you talk about that I think about historic all-black towns. I live in New York City. In the middle of Central Park there used to be an all-black town that was destroyed to build the park. When I hear you talk about the acknowledgment of healing, I think of how this country has dealt with all-black towns when the land becomes valuable. Let me ask you something else: Do you see a lot of your peers on the tech scene?
I mean, no, not really. It’s something I’ve struggled with—finding like-minded people around the same age as me who are on the same wavelength. I haven’t found a lot yet. I’m sure there are others in the world.
If you could put something on it, what would you say is the reason for that? The overwhelming whiteness of tech?
Exposure. That’s what we lack. I use the word exposure a lot to relate to new education. Exposure is about giving people the necessary core skills needed to be able to adapt to technology, to be able to adapt to design, to be able to adapt to their surroundings.
What are some of those core skills? When talking about tech, what are we talking about specifically?
Consistency, a willingness to absorb new information, a willingness to be dynamic. In tech, in particular, that’s what employers of the future will look for. They are not going to look at whether you’re good at PHP or Java or C Sharp or all of these programming languages. It’s going to be about how good are you at adapting to dynamic problems and providing dynamic solutions.
You have worked with some people, like Kanye West and Virgil Abloh, who have broken through these historically white industries. Kids who are into fashion are into this magazine. What steps can you give to the kid who is both a serious sneakerhead and a tech programmer to combine those two passions?
I would let that kid inner-stand that technology works for you. We don’t have to adjust our ways or suppress our power as young creatives, growing up in this digital world, to meet the needs and demands of any specific way of making technology. Another thing I would let them know is that we should approach solution-based thinking over problem-based thinking. If you are going to put out a problem, be prepared to give a solution to the problem. The third thing I’d give is to walk in your power, inner-standing—
Are you saying inner-standing?
I-double-N-E-R-standing.
Why did you decide to change that?
I’m very cautious of the words I use. I don’t use the word ‘try.’ I haven’t used the word try for about two years now and my life is greatly influenced. Just imagine if you are about to board a plane, and the pilot says, ‘I’m going to try to land,’ you’d be like, ‘You gon’ try to land? Nah, you better land this mofo.’ I hear so many young people that have the dopest ideas but the problem is they are trying. ‘I’m trying to do this. I’m trying.’ No. I’m actively doing this. I’m doing my best. Giving one-hundred percent of my capability. Live, or operate, within your highest frequency or your climax, always.
I’ve heard you mention how an operating system is similar to the US Constitution in the sense that an OS acts as the supreme law of the land. Since 1787, it has only been amended 27 times.
Yeah, isn’t that interesting?
It’s fascinating. I mean, that’s, like, absolutely unheard of in the tech world. To only change an OS 27 times in 300 years.
Think about Apple updating iOS every 30 years! You can see how that would drastically affect us. So imagine the constitution of the US, even with the amendments, if something is broken from the core because of bias, amending it will not help. Amending is the equivalent of putting perfume on a trash can. No. You need to take the trash out and replace it with a new bag.
I listened to your album, III, this morning.
Yeah, I’m working on my new EP. Hit-Boy is doing my whole album, but I’m going to be dropping an EP soon.
Talk to me about creating an algorithm in comparison to creating melodic rhythm.
There are two ways of spelling algorithm, to me. Algorithm, the conventional way, and then there’s [what] I created, spelled algo-rhythm. We are the rhythm to the algorithms. We can really bridge the divide in so many ways. I can take the same music with the same 808s and the same kicks and the same baseline that a lot of these artists are using to push forward negativity to create positive music. Telling people about infrastructural development, ownership and being in the position of owning and not just renting. And making it sound dope.
Right now, we all are regarding you as a wonder child, and it’s a beautiful thing. We want to define your image as America’s future, tech’s future. But I think we need to hear something humanizing. Where are you most vulnerable in your work?
My mental health. As a Taurus, I’m a nature person. I used to go to gardens and recharge in nature and I haven’t been doing that because my schedule demands so much. I move so fast that I forget, I might be a multidimensional being, but I’m confined to a three-dimensional human body, and so I need to rest, I need to be social. I should go to parties. Just tapping back into my human side.
In that sense, you live in the future. Are there any effects of time travel on your spiritual health or on your mental health?
Absolutely. As a futurist, you might be four steps ahead but you always need to make sure that you are bringing people with you, and waiting, and not expecting people to just catch up to you.
Do you ever feel too young to be doing some of the things that you are doing? For example, being the keynote speaker at NYU’s BSU commencement. Any feelings of missing out on your years?
Nah. I feel like it’s right on time with where I’m at and what the universe has.
INTERVIEW: BRANDEN JANESE
PHOTOGRAPHY: JUAN VELOZ