Beant's EP, 'The Rules of Engagement', is dope.
Late last month, British rapper Beant released a 4-track EP titled The Rules of Engagement, produced by a.s. kullar. The tape exhibits impressive emceeing and production skills from Beant and a.s. kullar respectively, exploring themes of race and spirituality - drawing heavily on Beant’s Punjabi-Sikh heritage. This EP is definitely worth a listen for everybody interested in UK hip hop.
London-based Beant (pronounced bay-unt, a name of Hindi origin) dropped The Rules of Engagement late last month, a 4-track EP accompanied by 2 music videos. The first track of the EP, Wicked Ways, has a visually stimulating music video directed by OX-BOY, whereby Beant is seen waking up and going through his morning routine with an intriguing split screen effect. At one time, the footage shown on the other side of the split screen to Beant is an onion being chopped, which could be said to be a visual representation of the layers in Beant’s rhymes.
“A lion don’t concern himself with thoughts of a sheep, so I don’t count shit when I go to sleep”
There are many clever plays on words that 22-year-old Beant uses to intricately tell his story. One excerpt from Wicked Ways goes: “Best watch the throne, you’re looking at the GOAT, half of these animals can’t take a joke / A lion don’t concern himself with thoughts of a sheep, so I don’t count shit when I go to sleep / when in my reality I don’t need dreams”. The climax of the video and the track comes 2 minutes in, when the beat switches up and the video moves from low contrast footage of morning routine to Beant riding in the back of a convertible BMW through Birmingham.
Akhada and Samson, the second and third tracks on the EP, are each chill hop records with some good rhyme schemes buried within. Perhaps the brightest spark of the EP, however, is the fourth and final track. Titled Brown Geezas and also accompanied by a music video, a.s. kullar has incorporated sounds of traditional Indian subcontinent music into the instrumental which is a fresh, yet natural sound for UK rap. Throughout the video, Beant performs in an industrial setting in front of a projector, the light from which partly blends Beant into the wall behind him. The video version of Brown Geezas includes an outro that is not on the studio version, so also worth a watch.
Beant’s 4-track The Rules of Engagement was clearly created by highly skilled artists, and we’re looking forward to what Beant can cook up next. But for now, we’re enjoying The Rules of Engagement on Spotify and Apple Music, as well as following Beant on Instagram.