Beatboxing

"beatbox" and "Beat box" redirect here. For other uses, seebeatbox (disambiguation).

Spencer X performing "Be Somebody" with only vocal beat-boxing

Beatboxing(alsobeat boxing) is a form ofvocal percussionprimarily involving the art of mimickingdrum machines(typically aTR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, andvoice.It may also involve vocal imitation ofturntablism,and othermusical instruments.Beatboxing today is connected withhip-hop culture,often referred to as "the fifth element" of hip-hop, although it is not limited tohip-hop music.The term "beatboxing" is sometimes used to refer to vocal percussion in general.

Origins

Techniques similar to beatboxing have been employed in diverseAmerican musical genressince the 19th century, such asearly rural music,both black and white, religious songs,blues,ragtime,vaudeville,andhokum.Examples include theAppalachiantechnique ofeefingand the blues songBye bye birdbySonny Boy Williamson II.

Additional influences may perhaps include forms ofAfrican traditional music,in which performersutilize their bodies (e.g., by clapping or stomping) as percussion instrumentsand produce sounds with their mouths by breathing loudly in and out, a technique used in beatboxing today.

Vocal percussion [is], "the imitation or approximation of percussion instruments," and beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion but can be described as, "music with your mouth... beatboxing is making andbeingthe music, not just rhythm. "...Beatboxing is both the rhythm — predominantly through thebassandsnare drumsas well ashi-hat— while also incorporating various sound effects such as DJscratching,synthesizers, andbass lines.Using the mouth, lips, tongue, and voice to make music is thus the beatboxer's equivalent to a pianist's fingers and arms.

Many well-known performers used vocal percussion occasionally, even though this was not directly connected to the cultural tradition that came to be known as beatboxing.Paul McCartney's "That Would Be Something"(1969) includes vocal percussion.Pink Floyd's "Pow R. Toc H."(1967) also includes vocal percussion performed by the group's original lead vocalist,Syd Barrett.Jazz singersBobby McFerrinandAl Jarreauwere very well known for their vocal styles and techniques, which have had great impact on techniques beatboxers use today.Michael Jacksonwas known to record himself beatboxing on a dictation tape recorder as a demo and scratch recording to compose several of his songs, including "Billie Jean","The Girl Is Mine",and others.In contrast, the English progressive rock bandJethro Tulladopted beatboxing on at least one track on their 2003 Christmas album.Gert Fröbe,a German actor most widely known for playingAuric Goldfingerin theJames BondfilmGoldfinger,"beatboxes" as Colonel Manfred von Holstein (simultaneously vocalizing horned and percussive instruments) inThose Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines,a 1965 British comedy film.

Contribution to hip-hop

Modern beatboxing first began as a way to assist or backup the MC. When drum machines were unavailable or unaffordable, communities in the inner city of New York began to mimic the sounds with their voices in ciphers. The term "beatboxing" is derived from the mimicry of earlydrum machines,then known as beatboxes, particularly theRoland TR-808.The term "beatbox" was used to refer to earlierRolanddrum machines such as theTR-55andCR-78in the 1970s.They were followed by the TR-808, released in 1980, which became central tohip hop musicandelectronic dance music.It is the TR-808 that human beatboxing is largely modeled after.

"Human beatboxing" in hip-hop originated in the 1980s. Its early pioneers includeDoug E. Fresh,the self-proclaimed first "human beatbox" (and arguably its most famous practitioner);Swifty, the first to implement the inhale sound technique;Buffy,who helped perfect many beatboxing techniques;andWise,who contributed significantly to beat boxing's proliferation.Wise inspired an entire new fan base of human beatboxers with his human turntable technique. Other pioneers of beatboxing includeRahzelwell known for his realistic robotic sounds and for his ability to sing and beatbox simultaneously,Scratcha beatboxer and musician well known for further revolutionizing the use of vocal scratching in beatboxing, Kenny Muhammad the Human Orchestra, a beatboxer known for his technicality and outstanding rhythmic precision, who pioneered the inward k snare, a beatbox technique that imitates a snare drum by breathing inward, and Emanon, an early protegee of Doug E. Fresh associated with Ice T andAfrika Islam.Many refer to beatboxing as the unofficial 5th element of hip-hop.

Modern beatboxing

An example of modern beatboxing

Biz Markiebeatboxing

The Internet has played a large part in the popularity of modern beatboxing. Alex Tew (aka A-Plus) started the first online community of beatboxers in 2000 under the banner of HUMANBEATBOX.COM. An early example of modern beatboxing was seen in the2001South Koreanromantic comedyfilmMy Sassy Girl.In 2001, Gavin Tyte, a member of this community created the world's first tutorials and video tutorials on beatboxing. In 2003, the community held the world's first Human Beatbox Convention in London featuring beatbox artists from all over the world.

Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to releases from artists such asRahzel,RoxorLoops,Reeps OneandAlem.In the Pacific, American beatboxer ofHawaii Chinesedescent Jason Tom co-founded the Human Beatbox Academy to perpetuate the art of beatboxing through outreach performances, speaking engagements and workshops inHonolulu,the westernmost and southernmost major U.S. city of the 50th U.S. state ofHawaii.

Sometimes, modern beatboxers 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 blowing and sucking air around their fingers to produce a very realistic record scratching noise, which is commonly known as the "crab scratch".Another hand technique includes the" throat tap ", which involves beatboxers tapping their fingers against their throats as theythroat singor hum. Beatboxers today can produce up to two different sounds at the same time.

Modern beatboxing has also evolved with the advent of technology such as live looping. Many beatboxers likeBeardyman,KRNFX,andThe Peteboxuse modern looping devices such as the Boss RC-505 to sample or layer their beatboxing sounds live on stage, in addition to traditional solo beatboxing. Such adaptation has allowed modern beatboxers to perform entire musical compositions much like DJs but with their mouths.

Today there is an increase in the variety in which we see beatboxing throughout musical culture. People have gone as far as adding beatboxing in with different instruments to create a completely different sound unlike any other. ArtistGreg Patillogoes as far as adding in beatboxing while playing the flute to very iconic songs. Beatbox has become modernized and has even been seen in popular movies such asPitch PerfectandPitch Perfect 2.These movies showcase classical songs performed with a cappella covers in which all of the beats to the songs are done completely using the idea and technique of beatboxing to complete the sound capable to imitate the original song.

Notation

As with other musical disciplines, some form ofmusical notationortranscriptionmay sometimes be useful in order to describe beatbox patterns or performances. Sometimes this takes the form ofad hocphonetic approximations, but is occasionally more formal.[b]is usually the bass drum,[k]is usually the snare drum, and/ts/([t͡s]) is usually the hi-hat (in⁴
₄:𝄆b-ts-k-ts-b-ts-k-ts𝄇).

Standard Beatbox Notation(SBN) was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin TyteofHumanbeatbox.comin 2006as an alternative toInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.

In a research study published in 2013 and based on real-timeMRIimaging of a beatboxer, the authors propose a notation system which combines theInternational Phonetic Alphabetwith musicalstaff notation,in part motivated by their observation that many beatboxing sounds can be adequately represented by the IPA.

Phonology

Each beatboxer can produce a very large number of unique sounds, but there are three distinct linguistic categories of sound within beatboxing.Ejectivesare the strong puffs of air from thevoice boxthat give intensity to percussive sounds. The "t", "p", and "k" sounds can all be made into ejectives."Ch" and "j" are examples of ejective affricates.

Nonstandardfricativesare the mechanical sounds such as snare drums, cymbals, and other buzzing noises in beatboxing that are made with fricatives. Certain sounds, such as velar lateral fricatives, bilabial lateral fricatives, and linguolabial fricatives, and velar trillsare all judged impossible according to the IPA but are technically possible and are sounds that are commonly used in beatboxing.

Coarticulationis the act of controlling a sound in two places at once. A common example of this is the sound created by rolling an "r" sound while saying a "v" sound. This is called a voiced alveolar trill with labiodental articulation. Similarly,epenthesisis the sound created when beatboxers sing and do percussion at the same time. Contrary to what the sound suggests, their tongue is not in two places at once. This effect is created by placing percussive sounds in the middle of words.

Multi-vocalism

Multi-vocalism is a form of vocal musicianship conceptualized by British beatboxer and vocalistKilla Kela.It describes beatboxers who incorporate other vocal disciplines and practices into their routines and performances such assinging,rapping,sound mimicry and other vocal arts.Beardymanis a well known multi-vocalist.

World records

According to theGuinness World Records,the current record for the largest human beatbox ensemble was set byThe Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups,with 6,430 participants, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of theHong Kong Special Administrative Regionon 26 June 2017.

Prior to this, the record was set byBooking.comemployees with 4,659 participants. It was achieved by Booking.com employees together with beatboxers at the RAI Amsterdam inAmsterdam,Netherlands,on 10 December 2013 during their annual company meeting.

The previous largest human beatbox ensemble involved 2,081 participants and was achieved by Google (Ireland), Shlomo (UK) and Testament (UK) at The Convention Centre, Dublin, Ireland, on 14 November 2011.

Before Shlomo's record, the previous record for the largest human beatbox ensemble involved 1,246 participants and was achieved byVineeth VincentandChrist University(India) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, on 5 February 2011.

Selected 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 popularization.

1980s

• Michael Winslow–Police Academy(1984)
• Fat Boys– "Human Beat Box" fromFat Boys(1984)
• Doug E. Fresh– "The Show"&"La Di Da Di"(1985)
• UTFO- "Bite It (UTFO song)"(1985)
• Emanon – "The Baby Beatbox" (1986)
• Roxanne Shante&Biz Markie– "Def Fresh Crew / Biz Beat" 12 "(1986)
• Just-Ice–Back to the Old School(1986)
• Skinny Boys- Jockbox (1986)
• T La Rock- Three Minutes Of BeatBox (1987) "Greg NiceBeatboxer "
• Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince-Rock the HouseReady Rock C-Beatboxer (1987)
• Wise– 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– fromTo The Extreme(1990)
• Snap!– Only Human – B-side on Mary Had A Little Boy 12 "(1990)

1990s

• Rahzel–Make The Music 2000(1999)

2000s

• Kyle "Scratch" Jones–The Embodiment of Instrumentation(2002)
• Killa Kela–The Permanent Marker(2002)
• Esham–Out Cold(2003)
• Justin Timberlake– "Rock Your Body"(2003)
• Rahzel–Rahzel's Greatest Knock Outs(2004)
• Björk–Medúlla(2004)
• Joel Turner– "These Kids"(2004)
• Matisyahu– "Live at Stubb's"(2005)
• 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)
• Dub FX– "Everythinks a Ripple" (2009)

2010s

• Beardyman–I Done A Album(2011)
• Hopsin– "Lunch Time Cypher" (2013)
• Reeps One– "Move" (2013)
• Berywam- "Berywam" (2017)
• NaPoM– "Lips" (2018)

2020s

• Show-Go - "Silver" (2022)
• D-low - "LanigirO" (2022)
• Stitch - "Stay With Me" (2022)
• Den - "Moments I had" (2022)

In popular culture

When asked to beatbox,Siriwill repeat the phrase "Boots and Cats" to mimic beatboxing.Teen Voguecalled it "perhaps the most entertaining mid-day pick-me-up ever created."Hamilton: An American Musicalused some BeatBoxing in "Aaron Burr, Sir".

Beatboxing can often be seen in national advertisements. AGEICOradio commercial,featuring a supermarket employee beatboxing various announcements over a store intercom ( "Cleanup on aisle 14" with beats interspersed), won theWestwood OneSports Sounds Awards Media Choice Award for best commercial heard during the radio network's coverage ofSuper Bowl LII.A 2021 nationalM&M'scommercial seen in Times Square features American beatbox looping championSungBeats.

See also

• List of beatboxers
• Grand Beatbox Battle
• Beatbox Battle World Championship
• Mouth drumming
• Konnakol
• Scat singing
• Puirt a beul
• Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box
• Beatrhyming
• Incredibox

External links

Beatboxing-Communities supporting the scene for more than 10 years:

• Swissbeatbox.com- World's largest Beatbox Platform.
• Beatboxbattle.tv- Organizer of the World Beatbox Championship.
• Humanbeatbox.com- One of the first Beatboxing Online-Communities.