Beans

Look at the hip-hop artists who are getting critics and hipsters salivating lately: It's not steely-eyed craftsmen like T.I., Clipse or Jay-Z . It's almost all extremely weird shit, from Lil B's prolific artlessness to Das Racist's surreal references to Odd Future's sadistic myth-making. And that's not to mention the chart-toppers who've received the lion's share of recent critical love, like the brilliantly absurd Lil Wayne and the increasingly nutso Kanye West. Compared to these guys, however, Beans is an OG of weird. The New York-born rapper and producer first came to prominence at the beginning of the last decade as a member of the acclaimed art-rap group Antipop Consortium. Antipop made waves with its dense, scattershot lyricism and its ready embrace of experimental dance sounds, such that signing with cutting-edge electronic label Warp Records in 2000 made perfect sense. The group disbanded in 2002, only to reconvene five years later and release a well-received comeback album, 2009's Flourescent Black.

In between Antipop's breakup and reformation, and even since its heralded return, Beans has managed to carve out an impressive solo career, to the extent that he's probably now better known for his individual work. On his own, Beans has continued to carry Antipop's torch of unorthodoxy, consistently finding ways to meld the boom-bap soul of hip-hop with thrillingly fractured beats and arty textures, incorporating not just electronic music but also frequently free jazz. Beans' avant-garde predilections don't preclude him from being able to rock a microphone, as he shows on this year's brilliantly heavy End It All. Indeed, he's been on a truly weird grind for a while now, since the days when Odd Future was in elementary school, when somehow we actually thought Kanye was endearingly humble. —Josh Love