Beans

<a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">Antipop Consortium</a> instigator Beans lays down relentless, out-of-this-world beats with highly poeticized and simply mind-boggling lyrics. His stream-of-consciousness delivery seems closer to sound poetry and free jazz than radio rap, and his music is similarly avant-garde, blending fractured electro with industrial noise. He's worked with a wide range of electronic, hip-hop, experimental, and rock artists, including <a href="spotify:artist:7Eu1txygG6nJttLHbZdQOh">Four Tet</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2914JagOufmP5BY9qLDxtF">Arto Lindsay</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1nCiDbYWnN9G4VQ4LxeyxD">Vernon Reid</a>, in addition to recording albums with jazz luminaries like <a href="spotify:artist:1Lw2WbL7CWZXAWSLWYXq4r">Matthew Shipp</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5r65V3tfKsDc3nHfpIl7D0">William Parker</a>. Following <a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">Antipop</a>'s initial breakup, he released his first solo album, Tomorrow Right Now, on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a> in 2003. Since then, his prolific output has veered between jazz abstractions (2006's Only), scatological freakiness (2011's End It All), and intensely political material (2017's HAAST). Two 2020 full-lengths (Team BreakUP and Venga) were followed by the 2021 single Bermuda Serpent Saliva Man.

Raised in White Plains, New York, Beans (born Robert Edward Stewart II) was a member of the influential Brooklyn Boom Poetic Collective. He then found acclaim merging hip-hop with experimental electronic music as one-third of the influential N.Y.C. progressive rap outfit <a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">Antipop Consortium</a>. The group, formed in 1997, released three full-lengths (culminating with the sophisticated and cerebral Arrhythmia on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp+Records%22">Warp Records</a>) as well as an album with <a href="spotify:artist:4vwzEW1kPK1BlgSBGrRyqZ">DJ Vadim</a> (as the Isolationist) and a collaboration with free jazz maestro <a href="spotify:artist:1Lw2WbL7CWZXAWSLWYXq4r">Matthew Shipp</a>.

In 2000, Beans gave the world the first taste of his solo work with the Nude Paper 12" on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mo+Wax%22">Mo Wax</a>. But it wasn't until the breakup of <a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">the Consortium</a> that he released his solo full-length debut. Tomorrow Right Now, put out by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a> in 2003, found Beans grafting <a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">Antipop</a>'s way-out B-boy surrealism to a true pop core. After a series of tours with acts as diverse as <a href="spotify:artist:166Dz1GX3xonSQ3Z6CQW26">the Rapture</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5CUQPbbOibUHRBIw9sU2wi">Out Hud</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:57UnSUpae3SbRekxNa5Kgl">El-P</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0ZsnKPvBsvvycnET2GZMrG">Prefuse 73</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:19rdse7ewbuvNcCSb4hg0n">Mike Ladd</a>, Beans recorded his follow-up, the Now, Soon, Someday EP -- including remixes by <a href="spotify:artist:0ZsnKPvBsvvycnET2GZMrG">Prefuse 73</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:57UnSUpae3SbRekxNa5Kgl">El-P</a> -- released in January of 2004. The full-length Shock City Maverick landed that same year and was followed in 2006 by Only, a collaboration with avant-garde jazzers <a href="spotify:artist:5r65V3tfKsDc3nHfpIl7D0">William Parker</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3UJfOrT4kZIoRtRfaCQgFp">Hamid Drake</a> for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Thirsty+Ear%22">Thirsty Ear</a> label's Blue Series. His 2007 effort, Thorns, mainly found him handling his own production, with <a href="spotify:artist:6Q0gMZJNIebNFFaJeonc11">Holy Fuck</a> backing him on a few tracks, and <a href="spotify:artist:1tVRa7YiCwE6hTGsqqb4Te">Dabrye</a> producing another. <a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">Antipop</a> re-formed that year, and their reunion album, Fluorescent Black, appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Big+Dada%22">Big Dada</a> in 2009.

Beans signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> for 2011’s End It All, which featured guest producers like <a href="spotify:artist:7Eu1txygG6nJttLHbZdQOh">Four Tet</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6kic5bCjlohhDn9KzXbOta">Clark</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3WaJSfKnzc65VDgmj2zU8B">Interpol</a>’s Sam Fogarino. Also in 2011, Beans reteamed with <a href="spotify:artist:0YIRvV4i3BIk1uRGM2Mdtt">HPrizm</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:4vSWMuZIpvFGdXOwth6JYz">Antipop</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:2Th7cxxMcOA78c0iIEK4C9">High Priest</a>), <a href="spotify:artist:1Lw2WbL7CWZXAWSLWYXq4r">Matthew Shipp</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5r65V3tfKsDc3nHfpIl7D0">William Parker</a> for the album Knives from Heaven. Beans and producer <a href="spotify:artist:5ExPH13WUhdGVNnMq6RLCr">Mux Mool</a> formed the duo <a href="spotify:artist:6O0IAZX5F80w1J3vf5iJlo">Knifefight</a>, releasing a self-titled EP on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> in 2013. After spending several years working on various projects, Beans returned in 2017 with a "weird fiction" novel titled Die Tonight, as well as three albums on his own <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22TYGR+RAWWK+RCRDS%22">TYGR RAWWK RCRDS</a>: Love Me Tonight, Wolves of the World, and HAAST. 2018 brought the EP Nights Without Smiles (with <a href="spotify:artist:1dbT0RVzpA7Bm7cMDON3d1">Diamond Terrifier</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0bYnQOfX9Fi140VOHhhCjz">Michael Beharie</a> of <a href="spotify:artist:0qEuBxmSxYfz0dsDmk8gqk">Zs</a>) and the albums Nibiru Tut and Someday This Will All Be Ash. Ace Balthazar, including guest appearances from <a href="spotify:artist:39vtb2iiz3079nqfL5nfFc">billy woods</a> and Jennifer Herrema, appeared in 2019. Team BreakUP and Venga (with <a href="spotify:artist:59lypjMPo7ZILhNMCgaE19">Angel Bat Dawid</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0nvvXVx3p5N71liittVwGa">Hemlock Ernst</a> featured on a track each) arrived the following year. The abrasive single Bermuda Serpent Saliva Man was released in 2021. Beans then worked on the solo album Harrower and a collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:5E3H2KyR31E2Dj3K6vIUe9">Vladislav Delay</a>. ~ Charles Spano & Paul Simpson, Rovi