Beatboxing = The Art of Urban Vocal Percussion

I wanted to blog about something I had a personal interest on so I thought beatboxing would be a good topic. I am sure many of you have heard of beatboxing and therefore know what it is. I was always fascinated with this form of “art”, though some people may not see it that way. I find that it takes certain skills for an individual to be able to make the sounds that come out of some of these beatboxers. The more technical term is vocal percussion. It is the imitating of drum sounds and beat patterns using your lips, tongue, mouth, throat, and voice.

Where did the term beatbox come from?
Human Beatbox literally means human drum machine and beatbox was originally used as two words ‘beat box’.

It is usually documented that beatboxing, as we know it, has its roots in the beginning of modern hip-hop, on street corners in placed like Chicago, the Bronx, and LA. However, vocal percussion – the art form from which beatboxing spawns – has been part of the music and urban scene for a lot longer than people think. This art goes back to the era of jazz, swing, and barbershop music. It has been well recorded that jazz musicians where the first group of artists who used their voices, and indeed, their whole vocal chords to imitate instruments. This art form contributed to a huge part of the hip hop community and has evolved it to what it is today. There were the three kings of beatbox of the 1980’s: Darren ‘Buffy’ Robinson, Doug E Fresh and Biz Markie. My personal favorite is Doug E Fresh especially his song, “La Di Da Di” collaborated with MC Ricky D. Another very well known beatboxer is Rahzel who was the first to ever simultaneously sing and beatbox at the same time, which is now a skill quite popular in the beatboxing community. This can also be categorized as multivocalism is a term used for artists who use beatboxing, vocal scratching, singing, MC-ing and poetry in their performances.

Doug E Fresh

Nowadays, there seems to be an increase in beatboxing artists especially with the Internet where many of these artists are able to share their talent with each other. There is even the “Beatbox Battle World Championship”, in which there are events all over the world in different countries for many artists to compete.
Browse through interviews of different recognized beatboxers from around the world.

Here’s the video of Doug E Fresh & MC Ricky D’s “La Di Da Di” (You might want to fast forward to 00:48 because that is when the song starts to pick up):