Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the wonderful world of BEANS, aka Mr. Ballbeam. Hip-hop rebel. Wordsmith extraordinaire. Sonic architect. Fashion renegade. Published poet. Culture star.Raised in White Plains, NY and first picked up on in the mid-90's as part of the mythic Soup / Boom Poetic collective, the word began to spread. Having achieved his widest acclaim as one-third of the legendary NYC progressive rap crew, Anti Pop Consortium, BEANS continues his grand experiments in music and life with releases on Warp and Thirsty Ear.With lyrical virtuosity, vanguard production that straight bangers, and one of the most unique and remarkable live performances around, BEANS harkens back to the glory days when all it seemed to take was real talent, real passion and the desire to actually be real and simply shine.Having shared stages and toured with everyone from Radiohead to Vernon Reid, Prefuse 73, Ratatat, Dabrye, Bill Laswell, The Rapture to Tortoise, The Locust, Battles to DJ Krush, Kool Keith, Pharoahe Monch to Aesop Rock, DJ Shadow to Cannibal Ox, Attica Blues to Terranova, plus Coachella and DJ gigs at The Guggenheim and with Missy Elliott. BEANS has displayed his multitudinous skills and the response has been astounding. Having first made a solo imprint with "Nude Paper", his 12-inch release on Mo'wax in 2000, BEANS gave us a taste of things to come. All this seems destined to redefine the word "fresh".The latest arsenal in his assault on the senses is BEANS new album entitled, THORNS. This record was written during a tumultuous 2 year period between his last release, SHOCK CITY MAVERICK and ONLY. THORNS is more straightforward and emotional in content yet more textured and dense in production. Guest producers include Dabrye, Tyler Bany and 3 collaborations w/ Holy Fuck. THORNS is an album you don't have to cut yourself to enjoy...
