by SCOTT C

With his former Antipop collaborators busy bringing their Airborne Audio to the front lines, Beans continues to slug it out in the trenches, focused on the power of one. The White Plains native blazed new ground as part of Antipop Consortium before their recent, almost premature demise, and now forges ahead with solo strength and no looking back. The fat, analog quirk of his hip hop is his own, as demonstrated on his solo debut Tomorrow Right Now on Warp Records. This self-proclaimed hip hop rebel's music is still anti-pop to the core, and just getting started. The Mirror spoke to Beans over the phone from San Francisco.

Mirror: Are you busy working on anything else besides hip hop these days?

Beans: I have other ambitions that I've yet to try. Eventually I'd like to get to the point where I concentrate a lot more on just writing. I'd really like to write a book.

M: A novel?

B: Yeah, like a novel.

M: So is that something that could come to light very soon? Have you talked to anyone about making it happen?

B: Nah. I'm not ready yet. A writer named Paul Bailey has been encouraging me to do it, but I haven't started writing yet. I'm not sure what direction to go in, or really what type of book it would be. I started working on the next record already anyway.

M: Oh yeah?

B: The EP's gonna come out in January. I'm also working on various things, one of which is my own label called Adored and Exploited. It's all in the works, it's all down the pipeline. I'm trying to make it happen.

M: Is this something you're trying to do in conjunction with Warp?

B: Maybe, maybe not.

M: Are they open to you and your label aspirations?

B: Um, I think so. They're supportive, but there are certain things that they have to work out, like their presence in the States. They exist in the States, but not as much as they do in Europe.

M: But do you think that's the label's fault, or that it has to do with the audience?

B: Nah, I think it's a label problem. It's not something that can't be worked out.

M: What do you think they're doing wrong?

B: They just opened offices in the States a couple months ago.

M: But they've been around internationally for years, and people know who they are, so if they were going to have a presence in the States, they would've already had it.

B: Without going any deeper than that, these things will be worked out in time.

M: A lot of people are asking you about the breakup of Antipop Consortium these days.

B: Hell yeah, all the time. You gonna ask me about it?

M: Nope. You starting any new groups on the horizon?

B: Hell no! I will never put myself in a group situation ever again.

M: Why?

B: I don't know, man. I'm just more content this way. Trust me. Everybody's happier when I'm by myself.

With Prefuse 73 and Dabrye
at Cabaret on Monday, Nov. 3, 9pm, $15

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