Music

Keepclimbing

by Jake Clapp

KHIRYARMSTEAD IS ENDING AN

EXCITINGPERSONALYEAR the same way he started it: With a headlining show around his birthday and a new Kaye the Beast record.

In December 2021, the New Orleans rapper known as Kaye the Beast released “The Spaceman,” his fifth full-length, and rocked Gasa Gasa. Around two weeks short of a year later, Armstead plays Hi-Ho Lounge on Thursday, Dec. 1, and his sixth album, “I Like You. I Think We Should Go Together,” will follow in December.

In between, Armstead has performed more than he has in years and has gotten “into gear creatively,” he says — he plans to follow the vibe-y “I Like You,” with another album in the summer. Kaye the Beast is part of the inaugural group featured on the New Orleans Public Library’s Crescent City Sounds streaming platform. And most recently, he joined Alfred Banks for a song during Banks’ opening set for acclaimed Washington, D.C., emcee Oddisee at the Toulouse Theatre.

There also was the time in September when Armstead performed to a crowd on the neutral ground outside the Dragon’s Den during a pop-up Hannibal Buress show — a testament to always being ready with a flash drive of songs in your pocket just in case technical difficulties temporarily turn the event into an open mic.

“I feel like I’m starting to kind of come out on the other side” of the pandemic and a personally stressful few years, Armstead says. “And so, I’m just excited to really end this year kind of strongly and then hit the ground running in 2023, because I think I’ve got high expectations as well as plans for next year.”

It’s been a steady climb for Armstead over the last near decade. The New Orleans native, who turns 31 next week, released his first full-length album — the poppy, fun “Ear Candy” — in 2013 and has steadily gigged and built up his hometown audience over the years. And he’s become close with other independent rappers, like Banks and Slangston Hughes.

Starting with his second fulllength, “SALT,” in 2017, Armstead has released longer projects at a steady clip. “[‘SALT’] was the first one I really just started trying to get into places,” Armstead previously told Gambit. “I had my first album release party, and I tried to get features.”

His 2019 record, “The Black Ranger,” features nerdcore rapper Mega Ran, and it was followed by “The Blue Album” — the pair of albums loosely correspond with one another as they journey through childhood, nostalgia and what it means to become an adult in 2020. Wanting to reassert himself — and with another album on the horizon — Armstead released the compilation “Who is Kaye the Beast?” in 2021. The emcee also produces almost all of his tracks, too, although past albums have featured work by producers CZA and Tom Yanks.

On the conceptual “The Spaceman,” Armstead imagines what fame would mean for his life — for his personal and professional relationships and for his mental health — with a deliberate flow and thoughtful lyricism. The album entered the iTunes hip-hop charts, a goal for Armstead.

“It’s resonated with people in a way that I was kind of really hoping for,” he says. Along with his music, Armstead is an educator and is involved with New Orleans theater.

Armstead’s sights are already set on 2023. He says his new album, “I Like You. I Think We Should Go Together,” will be softer and more intimate — an album that listeners can put on and be still for a minute. His follow-up will have “more bangers,” he says, for the summer heat. Kaye the Beast performs at 10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, at Hi-Ho Lounge. Proper Channels, Yung Delirious and DJ Novi also are on the bill. Tickets are $8 advance and $12 at the door. Find more at facebook. com/kayethebeast.

PROVIDED PHOTO BY CATHERINE DEBUYS Kayethe Beastplays Hi-Ho LoungeonThursday, Dec. 1.

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