With a music career that started in the ’80s, Kevin Beacham’s long resume features work as a producer, MC, DJ, and archivist. Past gigs include retail planning for Rhymesayers Entertainment, hosting Redefinition Radio on The Current, teaching courses at the Institute of Production & Recording (IPR), and promoting shows around the Twin Cities. But the knowledge, historical perspective, and critical intellect Beacham brings to the table goes deeper than any job title.

However, in 2017, Beacham stopped. “There was this new scene coming out of the Twin Cities,” he says, via Zoom. “And while I've always been trying to be one to support past, present, and future artists in general, there was sort of a resentment happening [from] people that were coming up. Feeling like, ‘the old heads are gatekeeping, holding, etc.’ and I don't want anyone to feel that way. It kind of sucks, because I feel like I've put so much into this. Don't I have a right to still do it?”

The roles he had taken on within hip-hop no longer seemed to have the same intrigue as before. However, this wasn’t a new feeling. He recalls knowing a change was coming after working on the album The Genesis of Genius, under the name Savage Intellect in 2001. “20 years ago, I stopped MCing,” he says. “I let people and things that didn't matter to me the most affect my creativity and my passion. After going through that again for a second time and realizing the state of the world we're in, I cut myself off from everyone. I wasn't talking to anyone but my family.”

Back to 2017, Beacham knew it was time for massive changes. So he gave away what he could of his worldly possessions, withdrew himself from work, and moved to Europe for an extended period of time. What originally started out as visiting his birthplace in Germany turned permanent. “I was curious about going back to where I was born,” he says. “When I went to Europe, I had no intention of coming back. I was ready to not only leave the U.S., but to leave behind music in general. I thought, ‘I'm going to go get a job stocking shelves, helping American tourists at stores,’ right? Anything that can afford me to live in a studio apartment near a beach, and that's it. That was my plan.” 

When he finally returned to Minneapolis in 2019, shortly before the global pandemic took shape, Beacham had an epiphany. “Some of my projects from back then were hitting some milestones,” he says. It was the 30th anniversary of Cause 4 A Riot!, an album he put out as a member of the Chicago-based hip-hop group Wildstyle, so he helped organize a reissue. “Then I started thinking, ‘You know what? I have these 13 albums I worked on in the house.’ I was only gonna do the archive stuff, but I'm gonna re-record these albums exactly how I intended them to be. I was re-learning how to rap for that, and it led me to think, ‘I wonder what it would be like to write again?’ Then I just tried it, and I couldn't stop.”

At the tail end of 2021, Beacham stepped back behind the mic and marched on to release three different EPs via his expanding 3Wisemen Entertainment Bandcamp page. Imperfectly Flawless and Sum of Inspirations show his enduring improvisational MC chops, with stylistic nods to Kangol Kid of UTFO, Queen Mother Rage, Def Jef, Funkytown Pros, and Nefertiti. These projects show his passion for music, and for hip-hop especially, never truly left. His rhymes reference his journeys in Europe and the ways life was different from his days in the United States.

With Sum of Inspirations, Beacham worked with beats exclusively from producer Odd Nosdam, known for his work with cLOUDDEAD, and remixes for Boards of Canada, the Notwist, and more. The production is darker, and it brings out rawer reflections on his time in Europe. The lyrics are directed not only toward those who need to hear them, but also inward. One example: the self-care message of “Misdirection.”

“‘Misdirection’ is me talking to myself and saying, ‘Kevin, you can take a break, and come back refreshed.’ I've always been bad at taking vacations,” he says. “I never used my vacation days. I'm the kind of person who’s always team-oriented, like, ‘I got to be there for the team.’ Even when I was working at McDonald’s, it didn't matter.”

On Imperfectly Flawless, Beacham blew the dust off his DJ/curation skills by carefully selecting seven beats from more than 8,000 he has accumulated in his digital folders. When it came to the works on Imperfectly Flawless, the productions selected from Adlib, Sixtoo, Ski Beatz, PMD, and more lean a bit more toward his more traditional liking of hip-hop. Songs such as “How I Killed My Own Ambition,” have Beacham digging to the root of his exhaustion and verbalizing it to heal in real time, with lyrics like, “I gave my all to others and killed my own ambition.  Sometimes it's sickening, emotionally crippling, but the rebuilding of my soul, that’s what you’re witnessing.”

Such raw and emotional honesty has helped him process challenges from the past few years. “I was really in a very dark and depressive state,” he says. “When I looked forward and I saw my future, I didn't see anything. It made me think ‘Well, maybe there's nothing left for me to do. Maybe I'm just in the bonus rounds of life, and nothing else matters.’ I was getting to that point where I didn't want to get out of bed. So it was a really hard time. This is the third time music literally has saved my life.”

A third EP, titled The Forbidden Meditation Method, focuses on something Beacham hasn’t done in a long time: create musical works behind the boards. Using today’s technology and software, Beacham created seven musical works that are not so far off from the beat selections he made on Sum of Inspirations and Imperfectly Flawless. The instrumentals here are somewhat ominous, and sometimes embrace more ambient and atmospheric tones and textures.

It turns out hip-hop was always there beside Beacham while he explored new frontiers, and gained a deeper view of the world around him. Future musical projects are still to come, there’s archivist work to do, and a podcast titled Stories About Songs, which is set to premiere its second season soon. Along with two more album projects slated for future release within the year, Beacham is feeling like he can take on anything.

“I’m in the best physical and mental shape of my life currently,” he exclaims. “I'm in my zen moment. I feel like I'm the best version of me, ever.”