I’m a longtime closeted beatboxer. I do it while walking around, doing household tasks, in the shower, pretty much anywhere except in front of other people. My wife is remarkably tolerant of it, bless her, and my infant son has no choice but to listen to me do it. I don’t expect to ever beatbox for audiences, but I still fascinating and delightful. It’s simultaneously modern and ancient — imitating high-tech drum machines, samplers and turntables, using the most ancient musical instrument of them all, the human body.
Growing up in New York City, I was exposed to a lot of beatboxing at the background level. The earliest track I can definitely point to as impacting my consciousness was “Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz” by the great Biz Markie.
Like so many other aspects of hip-hop, beatboxing seems really easy until you try to actually do it. “Real” musicians look down on it, because it’s extremely accessible at the entry level, and because it has popularly been associated with comedy acts. It’s easy to dismiss something like the Fat Boys’ “Human Beat Box.” But we shouldn’t. This is strong, inventive, confident music, no less effective for its playfulness and good-natured humor.
Some scientists at USC put a beatboxer into an MRI machine. You can watch some fascinating and disturbing videos of how the tongue, lips, palate and glottis produce different drum hits in real time. People have probably been making mouth percussion sounds like this since long before the invention of drums. But beatboxing needs microphone amplification to reach full power. By using the bass-boosting microphone proximity effect, Doug E Fresh fills out the rhythm track just fine in “La Di Da Di” with Slick Rick.
Doug E Fresh’s most virtuoso display that I’ve heard is on “Freaks” with Lil Vicious. While I’m disturbed by the sound of a young boy rapping such filthy lyrics, Doug’s beats are riveting.
I used some samples of Doug E Fresh over loops of NYU’s Buchla synth to create this track:
Former Roots member Rahzel is one of the great beatboxers of his generation.
In keeping with the Fat Boys tradition of beatboxing as comedy, here’s Reggie Watts improvising some hip-hop using a loop pedal.
Finally, enjoy this French dude beatboxing his way through hip-hop history.