By Paul Piazza

Action Bronson isn’t your everyday rapper. Recently, at South by Southwest in Austin, the rapper rolled in with his own food truck. The former chef from Queens turned “foodie rapper” is rising fast in the hip-hop world. When Bronson (real name Arian Arslani) made a stop at Ace of Spades on Monday night, the 31-year-old demonstrated great verbal agility, with the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.

Many in the fairly large crowd knew the words to his songs, but it was still a pleasant surprise to this writer when he adorned phrases with “seasonable vegetables” or quipped that a “caddy got the brown on top, just like creme brûlée.”

It didn’t hurt that Bronson had producer the Alchemist (Dilated Peoples, Eminem) running the turntables at the show. Alchemist (real name Daniel Maman) revved-up the crowd before Bronson hit the stage. Big Body Bes, the rapper’s longtime comedy foil, who co-stars on Bronson’s popular show on Vice’s Munchies channel called “Fuck That’s Delicious,” came out and got buck-wild for a couple of songs as well.

Two of the show’s bigger highlights were “Baby Blue” and Bronson’s latest hit “Easy Rider.” However the biggest surprise was during the brief encore—the show barely clocked in over an hour—when the Alchemist and Bronson collaborated on a soulful version of Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason.” There will be plenty of reasons to pay attention to what Bronson does next.

The Alchemist

Action Bronson with Big Body Bes