Beatboxing

Beatbox and Beat box redirect here, for other uses see Beatbox (disambiguation).

Biz Markie beatboxing

Shlomo beatboxing

Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing today is connected with hip hop culture, being one of "the elements", although it is not limited to hip hop music.^[1][2]

History of beatboxing

Prehistory

Vocal imitation of percussion sounds has existed for a very long time. One tradition is thought to have originated in India several thousand years ago: the tradition of bol, and the Chinese developed Kouji, a type of vocal performing arts. These had little or no relation with hip hop, however, and have no direct connection to modern Eastern Hip Hop. Some African traditions use performers' bodies (clapping, stomping) to make musical sounds to maintain a steady musical pace. They made sounds using their mouths by loudly breathing in and out, which is done in beatboxing today.

Hip hop origins

Beatboxing in hip hop originated in 1980s. Its early pioneers include Doug E. Fresh, Buffy from the Fat Boys, and Wise (Stetsasonic) . Credits of the three include Doug E. Fresh for being the self proclaimed first "human beatbox,"^[3], Buffy for helping perfect the art & Wise for taking it to a level that inspired other individuals to want to be a human beatbox. Wise with his human turntable technique inspired a whole new fan base of human beatboxers. The term "beatboxing" is derived from the mimicry of the first generation of drum machines, then known as beatboxes.

Modern beatboxing

Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to artists such as Rahzel, Kenny Muhammad, and Matisyahu, who have promoted the art form across the world.^[4] Websites also contribute substantially toward raising the profile of beatboxing.

Many a cappella singing groups have one or more members using this technique, especially when performing songs which have a heavy percussive element, in order to closely mimic or duplicate the original sound.

One of the modern singers and musicians who started to add his own sounds to his music was Michael Jackson in songs like Billie Jean, Tabloid Junkie, and Who Is It. Most of the time, he admitted that he needed a tape recorder to record this sound that came to his mind just to not forget them and around that base built the rest of the tune.

Sometimes, artists will use their hand or another part of their body to extend the spectrum of sound effects and rhythm. Some have developed a technique that involves using their hand to produce very realistic scratching effects, which they use in beatboxing. An 18-year-old boy from Japan, Daichi, did just that in his video during the Beatbox Battle Wildcard contest on YouTube. Another artist from Belgium cupped his hands to make bird and ocean sound effects in his beatboxing, and so forth.

In 2005, the world championship of beatboxing was organised in Leipzig, Germany. The participants came from all over the world, and included Tom Thumb, and Joel Turner (Australia), White Noise (Ireland), RoxorLoops (Belgium), Poizunus (Canada), and Faith SFX (UK). After several heats of beatbox battles and contests, the final between RoxorLoops (Belgium) and Joel Turner (Australia) was decided. The five judges had a difficult time picking a winner and called for two extra rounds after which Joel Turner won the world championship.

Also in 2005, Beatbox Battle® TV was founded September 2005 at the 1st Beatbox Battle World Championship event by Bee Low, B-Film and Philibox. Today, it has become the largest beatboxing film archive in the world.^[5]

Recently, a 2009 beatboxing world championship took place where over 52 beatboxers and many female beatboxers competed for the title. The female British winner Bellatrix (UK), the male Swiss winner, ZeDe (SUI), and the band Under Kontrol (FR) are now the holders of the largest beatboxing title.

Modern beatboxer Layth performing at Audio club, Brighton

Notation

As with other musical disciplines, some form of musical notation or transcription may sometimes be useful in order to describe beatbox patterns or performances. Sometimes this takes the form of ad hoc phonetic approximations, but is occasionally more formal.

Standard Beatbox Notation (SBN) was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin Tyte ^[6] of Humanbeatbox.com in 2006^[7] as an alternative to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.

In 2010 the UK beatboxer Shlomo worked with composer Anna Meredith on a "concerto for beatboxer and orchestra", and developed a simple phonetic notation in order to create a score for the beatboxer ^[8].

Selected beatbox discography

This list is a selected discography of commercial releases which are mostly/entirely beatbox-based or are otherwise notable/influential records in the history of beatboxing and its popularisation.

1980s

• The Fat Boys - Fat Boys (1984)
• Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick - The Show, b/w La Di Da Di (1985)
• Just-Ice (featuring Davy DMX on beatbox) - Back to the old school (1986)
• Wise (Stetsasonic) - Just Say Stet (1985), Faye (1986) & Stet Troop 88 (1988)
• Biz Markie - Goin' Off (includes beatbox track "Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz") (1988)
• Vanilla Ice - Havin' a Roni - from To The Extreme (1990)

1990s

• Rahzel - Make The Music 2000 (1999)

2000s

D.R.E.S. performing in Atlanta

• Andre "D.R.E.S. tha BEATnik" Lett - Have Mic... Will Travel: The EP (2001)
• Kyle "Scratch" Jones - The Embodiment of Instrumentation (2002)
• Killa Kela - The Permanent Marker (2002)
• Rahzel - Rahzel's Greatest Knockouts! (2004)
• Marcelo D2 - Acústico Mtv (2004)
• Björk - Medúlla (2004)
• Joel Turner - These Kids (2004)
• Biz Markie - Make the Music with your Mouth, Biz (2006)
• Poizunus - A.D.D. (Active Dreaming Disorder) (2007)
• Kid Beyond - Amplivate (2004)
• Blake Lewis - A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) (2007)

See also

• List of beatboxers
• Hip hop music
• Konnakol
• Scat singing
• Puirt a beul
• Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box
• Michael Winslow

References

Faith sfx

External links

• BeatboxSpot: Online Beatboxing Contests
• www.beatbox.tv Beatbox.tv
• Humanbeatbox
• Beatbox World Championship
• Beatboxers Database/Forum
• www.ibeatbox.com "Breath Control: History of the Human Beat Box" official web site
• Bol, Solkatu, Konnakkol Introduction to the ancient Indian approach to rhythmic mnemonic syllables