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Scene report: Beans/Big K.R.I.T. at Mohawk
Beans might be the first rapper I’ve ever seen - and that’s a reasonable but not huge sample group - who at no time provoked the audience to wave their hands, cheer, or shower him with adoration. That’s the first weirdo thing about him. The second is his practice of standing close to stock still, with the upper half of his body rocking like the pendulum of a cuckoo clock as words spill out of him with every accent and syllabic emphasis purposely misplaced like a bop jazz trumpeter trying to make it as hard as possible to dance with the rhythm.
So, Beans is pretty great. “Death Sweater” - from the new “End It All” - is one of the more sneakily fun dance songs 2011 has given us, and the man manages to rock a crowd by smartly emphasizing his on-beat work instead of his early post-Antipop Consortium output, which at times sounded like minimalist art rockers Autechre making a Wu-Tang audition tape. Or he can go acappella for a five minute stretch - whatever you need.
That was inside at Mohawk. Out on the patio, rising rapper Big K.R.I.T. was enjoying every second of the moment he’s currently experiencing in our musical ecosystem. The outdoor area was packed beyond all description, even before I watched at least 20 people pay the walk-up $20 admission charge in about a 15 minute stretch toward the middle of his set.
Hope those folks - who, to put it possibly not diplomatically, are more of a West Sixth pedigree - were OK with catching Baths on the inside for the rest of the evening once K.R.I.T. called it a show. Added bonus of the night; spying Transmission Entertainment booker Graham Williams chilling out front of Mohawk with friends during K.R.I.T., bobbing back and forth like no one was watching and clearly enjoying the fact that he has one of the five best jobs in the entire free world.
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