Beatox (a.k.a. Adam Fainman) uses his voice as a multi-layered instrument. A vocalist, rapper, virtuosic beatboxer, and producer, he is capable of making unusual sounds into soothing beats. Dynamic beatboxing and introspective storytelling intertwine with lush, chilled-out production. On his third full-length album, Been a Long Time, the Winnipeg artist delivers lighthearted raps and grooves galore, distilling his hip-hop, soul, funk, and jazz influences into an infectiously laidback record. The 11-track effort arrives on June 7, 2024. Born and raised in Toronto, Beatox moved to Winnipeg in his teens where the harsh winters and artistic community nurtured his creativity and interest in different styles of music. Growing up on jazzy rap and gleeful disco-funk, from A Tribe Called Quest to Kid Creole and the Coconuts, along with his musician mother Rachel Kane’s folk and roots influences, his sound today aligns more with groovy and loose contemporaries like Tom Misch and Mac Miller. The restless producer has quietly released two full-length albums since 2020, The Beatox Experiment (2021), a funky live-off-the-floor jazz-rap project; and Musical Mind (2020), an exercise in melding beatboxing with a genre-fluid array of collaborators. He has also released a series of beats under the In the Loop banner. Offering swaggering, improvised loops and calming melodies, Beatox’s mood-building bops invite listeners to relax their minds by basking in the glow of a good beat.