Beans
Tomorrow Right Now
Warp
When the boys from the Boulevard of Linden broke up, a shockwave tore through the hip-hop community. When Anti Pop Consortium finally called it quits last year, a lot of folks cried, “Who?” Sure, APC was not Tribe, but hip-hop definitely lost something. The more progressive, experimental edge of rap became a little frayed. Who was going to challenge the pop appeal of the Neptunes? Definitive Jux could not do it alone.
Now, Beans (aka Mr. Ballbeam; a third of APC) has emerged with a solo debut, which is a hell of a lot more impressive than Shaheed Muhammad’s Lucy Pearl or the initial solo efforts of Q-Tip and Phife Dawg combined. Tomorrow Right Now keeps the Consortium’s vision in business. The man don’t play. He spits incisive, abstract rhymes that leave you marveling–and a bit confused, at times. And that experimental edge has dulled not one iota. Beans has an amazing talent of being a little out there while still banging with the best of them. Whether it’s the sci-fi funk of “Hot Venom,” the steel drum banging of “Phreek the Beet,” or the beat-boxing “Crave” for the old schoolers, Beans knows how to craft a jam. And, alongside his freaky-ass instrumentals, “Sicklecell Hysteria” and “Rose Perriwinkle,” he has songs like “Mutescreamer” and “Walking by Night” to which even the poppiest among us can bounce or nod.
So, attention, esoteric hip-hop heads, Tomorrow Right Now is an album you need immediately.
Warp Records: http://www.warprecords.com/
