Sandy MC —full name Sandy Adalberto Carriello Rojas, born in Santo Domingo on 14 September 1972, died in New York on 23 December 2020— was a Dominican rapper and singer, half of the pioneering merenhouse duo Sandy & Papo.

«Boogie Down Rap» and «Sábado de Corporán»

Drawn to rap as a teenager by groups like Run-D.M.C., The Fat Boys and Public Enemy, he was part of Santo Domingo’s local rap scene in the 1980s as a member of «Boogie Down Rap», appearing on television programs including «Sábado de Corporán».

«Sandy & Papo»

After moving to New York in the early 1990s, he reunited with Luis «Papo MC» Deschamps, and the two formed Sandy & Papo following an audition for Proyecto Uno, a pairing arranged by Nelson Zapata and Pavel de Jesús. The duo became part of New York’s merenhouse movement, alongside Proyecto Uno, Fulanito and Ilegales, covering the house hit «El Mueve Mueve» — a Spanish-language version of Reel 2 Real’s «I Like to Move It» — and writing «Huelepega», the theme song for the 1999 Venezuelan film of the same name. Their song «Candela» later appeared in the 2006 animated film «Happy Feet».

After Papo

The duo ended when Luis Deschamps died in a car accident on 11 July 1999. Sandy continued as a solo artist, releasing the tribute album «Homenaje a Papo» in 2000, followed by «El Duro Soy Yo» (2005), which included «El Hijo de Doña Beba (Tu Mujer)» and «Pa’ Qué Me Tiras», and «Insuperable» (2010), led by the single «Tabaco y Ron». In 2017 he released «La Historia de un Dúo», revisiting the story of Sandy & Papo.

Legacy

Sandy Carriello died of a heart attack in New York on 23 December 2020 and was buried at the Cementerio Cristo Salvador. In 2023 the producer Winston de Jesús released an album of previously unreleased Sandy MC recordings completed with the help of artificial intelligence tools.