Black is the new pink. Beatboxing is the new DJ.

Black is the new pink. Beatboxing is the new DJ.

Mar 14

I’m not sure when this emerging pattern of beatboxing began (and I mean the recent upswing in visibility, not its 80s roots – I miss The Fat Boys), but it’s about to reach a critical mass I think. I’m not prone to predictions, but I think within the next year, if not the next few months, beatboxing is about to blow up. Follow my train of thought, won’t you.

Most recently, as in today, Xeni at BoingBoing posts about a French boxer on their version of American Idol (wait, did American Idol come first?) – Joseph blew away the judges, but I’m not sure that he made it on the show. You have to sing, after all.

I found this amusing, as I’d just stumbled upon a boxer trying out for the Australian Idol show.

My journey from not-paying-attention to trading links with Xeni started a couple of months back when I discovered a YouTube video for Biz Markie’s Turn the Party Out. Song, fucking, rules. And I had to buy an expensive hip hop sampler CD to get a better version, but it was worth it.


Oh sure, he doesn’t box on it, but it got me thinking, and then searching for more. YouTube proved to be a wealth of data.

For starters, I discovered Shlomo, a top-ranking UK boxer. Besides backing up Bjork on her vocals-only album, Medulla (human drum kits are fair game, you see) and starting humanbeatbox.com (you know it’s serious when they start self-organizing), he’s toured the world and wowwed them on TV over the last few years.

It was exactly while I was absorbing all this that I got a link forwarded to me by a friend.

If the YouTube comments are any indication, not only has it been watched a lot, it’s getting handed around like Paris Hilton’s hacked blackberry pics.

Since I love a good sense of humour, I instantly aligned myself with Beardyman in whatever bid for world domination he makes. Check out his homepage and have a listen to him on a recent morning radio interview (it’ll auto-play for you.) Just insane.

And if that wasn’t enough, I send Beardyman onto another friend, who in turn tells me he saw Masi Oka (Hiro of Heroes fame) on Conan O’Brien, where he admits to be a beatboxer, and then proceeds to prove it (got to 4:40 into the clip.)

And then it smacks me between the eyes – I’ve seen the pilot episode of Yo Gabba Gabba and the show, due to air on Nick Jr. this fall, has a regular segment called Biz’s Beat of the Day, wherein Biz Markie teaches kids to rock the party that rocks the par-tee (and bug the shit out of their parents.)

Why yes, I did email all this to Xeni – who says you can’t give things a little shove in order fulfill your own predictions? Let’s watch, shall we?

My name is Chris, and I love to dance. Boom-ch-boomboom-chick. Boom-ch-boomboom-chick.

Remember, you heard it here first.