Decora

Lloyd Gregory Sandiford (born January 4, 1984), known professionally as Decora, is an American AfroLatinX hip hop artist, producer, performance poet and social activist based in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Decora initially gained notable recognition as a member of the socially-conscious hip hop group, The Readnex Poetry Squad.

While touring nationally and abroad, he and the group developed the “Hip Hop and Poetry Saved My Life” workshop aimed toward at-risk youth.

Decora was born Lloyd Gregory Sandiford on January 4, 1984, in Texas.

Decora's nickname was bestowed on him by his grandmother, a variant on the Puerto Rican phrase de corazon, “of the heart.” Decora and his father moved to Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1985 at the age of 2.

In the fourth grade, Decora moved with his father to Delhi, New York, where his father returned to college to study engineering.

It was around this time that Decora began writing poems to cope with his transient family life.

When he was 14, Decora's family moved to Puerto Rico after the death of his grandfather to care for his grandmother.

Eventually, Decora landed stateside again in The Bronx.

He attended City-As-School High School in the West Village of Manhattan.

He shares a name with his great-uncle, Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, the fourth Prime Minister of Barbados from 1987 to 1994.

He eventually moved to the Hudson Valley in 2001, where he attended SUNY Orange in Middletown, New York.

Decora founded and performed as a member of the Hudson Valley-based words-and-music crew, The Readnex Poetry Squad, with other members Jarabe Del Sol, Freeflowin, Latin Translator, and.

The group met during a campus open mic night in 2001 while attending SUNY Orange.

When asked to define ReadNex's style, Decora said, “There are four elements that make up hip-hop culture: rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti writing.

We’ve added a fifth, ambiguous element, which is more personal and can be anything you want it to be."

The Readnex Poetry Squad, which stands for “Next Poets to be Read About,” began to gain regional and national attention with their 2008 Frontlines Tour, a self-funded expedition that took the group to 40 cities and towns across the U.S. Along with performing on tour, the group held educational workshops at community centers aimed at teaching youth through writing, painting, and dance.

Their confidence-building, affirmation-based workshop, “Hip Hop and Poetry Saved My Life,” was picked up by the New York State Education Department and taught throughout New York, and then the country.

In 2009, the group was one of the first hip-hop acts to perform at the Clearwater Festival which helped to secure Decora's place on Hudson Valley's list of People to Watch in 2012.

While teaching a workshop at Clearwater in Beacon, NY, in 2009, the group met American folk singer, social activist, Pete Seeger.

That year, ReadNex became one of the first hip-hop acts to ever perform at the Clearwater Festival.

Through the course of their active years The ReadNex Poetry Squad maintained an itinerary of educational and advocacy efforts, and also released 3 studio albums through their own Debefore Label.

By 2012, Decora and the group had led more than 200 sessions, initially teaching kids, and then coaching teachers and administrators on how to better communicate with at-risk kids.

The workshop has now been taught at 87 schools across the country, as well as abroad.

The last time ReadNex toured was 2012, but the group members continue to find new ways to collaborate.

In 2014, Decora and Freeflowin teamed up to open Create Space, a collaborative workspace and art gallery in Newburgh, NY.

Decora launched his solo career in 2014, with the release of “Flowers,” a single from his debut solo album, Bread and Oats.

The tune pays tribute to his late hero and mentor Pete Seeger, referencing the folksinger's classic "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" in the chorus as the verses outline commentary on current sociological and environmental situations.

Decora launched his solo career in 2015 with his debut album Bread and Oats.

The full Bread and Oats album was released in July, 2015.

Afropunk reviewed the album, saying it was Decora's “refusal to play by the rules that made Bread and Oats such a compelling record.” In his review of the album, Afropunk contributor Nathan Lee said, “Decora has set a monumental task before himself: to tie together a hundred disparate influences and ideas into one cohesive whole...

he does it remarkably on Bread and Oats.” Lee urged readers to “Definitely check this one out.”

Bread and Oats includes two tracks featuring Corey Glover, lead vocalist of Living Color.

According to Afropunk, Glover's “mind-expanding contributions” to the album - as heard on “Nantucket” and “Beautiful Bitch” - helped to highlight Decora's commitment to skirting expectations and pushing boundaries.

Corey Glover commented on working with Decora, saying “One of the things that strikes me about him as an artist is that he really reflects the total diversity of his environment, not just where he lives but the world as a whole.

And sonically the album reflects that as well.

It’s all over the place.

There are elements of rock, folk, soul, all kinds of stuff.”

He released his second album, Beyond Belief, with a concert at Lincoln Center in February 2017, and released his third album Reverie in 2018.

In 2019, Decora released new music every month, in the form of EPs, singles, and a full-length instrumental album.