The Short-Lived Life of the Beat Box…
…and it’s emergence outside of the rap paradigm
When you ask informed people the different elements of Hip-Hop, they tend to answer with Djing, BBoying/BGirling, Rapping, Writing (Graffiti), & Knowledge. Faced with a fill in the blank test, you insert those five — you’ll get the answer correct.
For at least five years there was another rarely mentioned element; an element that most MCs had. Of course what we’re talking about is the once maligned, sometimes novelty technique of Beat Boxing. The once ubiquitous Beat box made it’s first appearance in 83 and popped up on various recordings up until it’s last prominent showcase in 88.
But Beat Boxing didn’t die. Instead it changed, morphed, and found it’s own lane all together. Separated from rap music, Beat Boxing has flourished and spread throughout the world — taking on a new life that has lasted longer than it’s initial introduction.
We’ll take a brief look at Beat Boxing here (as there are whole websites dedicated to the art form now) and how it jumped from the confines of rap and into the wider world of musical art.
Making sound effects with your mouth was such a child-like thing to do. We made PEE-YUN sounds for lasers and WAAAN sounds for lightsabers. There was nothing “artful” about it. At least that’s what we thought…until we saw “Police Academy.”
“Police Academy” out at the beginning of ‘84, March if I’m not mistaken. It was one of those movies my mom didn’t feel no kind of way taking us to. (She also took us to see Friday the 13th and Halloween…but that’s another post). It was cool. Real funny for a twelve year old, but for us, Michael Winslow stole the show.
Although my memory is hazy about the movie itself (I know it’s a crew of misfits…of course it is, it’s the 80s), I just remember Winslow making the sounds of everything from an overly loud nose blow to police sirens. Funny. But never looked at it in the context of music.
A couple of months later, me and my older brother were off to stay in New Jersey with my father. We were happy to see him and our baby sister…we were ecstatic to be close to New York and Philly and proper radio. We packed cassettes. Lots of cassettes.
I don’t remember the order — it was all within the first few days of us being there — but we heard and recorded the tracks that would be our songs of the summer. We’re talking: Whodini’s “Five Minutes of Funk,” Art of Noise’s “Close to the Edit,” T LA Rock, “It’s Yours,” and of course, The Fat Boys “Stick ‘Em.”
It was a great time in Hip-Hop.
Times were changing. Up until that summer, Hip-Hop as a culture was just words. Sure, I saw B-boying in videos and on television and I made my sorry attempts at doing it. But that summer is when I made my first piece, “Point Blank,” some wack letters colored in yellow with a blue outline. And seeing…or rather, hearing Buffy, the Fat Boy’s Beat Box, gave us yet another option.
As I’ve mentioned before, if you said that you were “into” Hip-Hop in those days, no one just took you on your word. Immediately you would be challenged with the question, “what do you do?” Not being able to rhyme, too broke to be a DJ, marginal b-boying skills, I was a writer (graffiti), which I excelled at.
Everyone attempted Beat Boxing, but if you couldn’t do it while someone rapped and your beats didn’t inspire them to new heights, then you would be summarily dismissed.
Luckily, I had my Superhero older brother, Reginald McKie, who dove in first. And, like all things that he did, he killed it. I studied him and became good enough for my little Chenault Lane Breakers crew. (It was three of us, hardly a crew….but hey…)I could do a drumroll and knew how to get good bass with or without a microphone. That was better than most.
But nothing like Buffy. (I still haven’t learned what to call his signature sound) The first time we heard “Stick ‘Em,” because of the bass, and his beat /cymbal combo, we thought that surely there had to be a machine somewhere. Alas, it was just him. We could have listened to the entire Fat Boys debut with just Kool Rock-ski, Markie Dee, and Buff on the beat and we were slightly disappointed that there wasn’t more songs like “Stick ‘Em.”
Of course, like all things rap, there was some controversy surrounding whether Buff was the “original” Human Beat Box or not. I can tell you this, and this shows the power of radio and promotion, it was no controversy at all to us. There was only Buffy.
In retrospect, we should have known who the other Beat Box was. “Beat Street” came out in June of 84, and, although we didn’t see it when it opened, we still saw it the same year that the Fat Boys were tearing up the charts.
What I’m talking about is the “Jingle Jangle, Christmas for the Poor,” Treacherous Three scene. No surprise that I had a hard time remembering the scene, we fast forwarded half the movie and watched very little after the battle at the Roxy. But in that Christmas scene, front and center…well below and center is the man who proclaims himself to be the original Human Beat Box, Doug E Fresh — popping out and doing what Doug E does.
If the movie was out in the summer, it was shot a year before and Doug E had to be known enough to squeeze in a scene with the incredibly popular (but waning) Treacherous Three.
But that meant nothing in our world. Doug E Fresh had no music on the radio so he couldn’t compete with the Fat Boys who had more than just radio play backing them.
Whatever Charles Stettler’s motivation, he saw what Michael Holman saw, what Fab Five Freddy saw, and what Russell Simmons had been building. Stettler saw that the culture of Hip-Hop could be a big commercial success and he wanted in.
People often mention how the Fat Boys, then known as the Disco 3, were discovered at a talent show where Buffy brought the house down with his Beat Boxing skills. But few know that the man who would become their manager is the one who put that show on. That, of course, was Stettler.
(Stettler would also land Swatch as the sponsor for the first mega-rap tour, Fresh-Fest…again, another post)
I know The Fat Boys released a single prior to “Fat Boys/Stick ‘Em” called “Reality” but I didn’t know that song then and I still don’t know it now. The group made that song against their better judgement and after that failure, they were determined to succeed…and Stettler made sure of it.
‘Stick ‘em” was something people in Brooklyn used to say back in the day when you were gonna stick somebody up — going to rob somebody. Like we’re gonna go stick these kids, or whatever the case may be. And we changed it into ‘Brrrt Stick Em,’ like we gonna rob [other MCs]. That was the first thing that we recorded with Kurtis Blow. Prince Markie Dee
Having Stettler backing them meant they would soon have Kurtis Blow as their producer/mentor. Having Stettler backing them meant The Fat Boys were able to take the stage alongside Run DMC, Whodini, Newcleus, and many others at the 27 stop Fresh Festival in 1984. Having Stettler also meant that they would have a pivotal role in “Krush Groove,” 1985’s schlocky rap offering, have a Swatch endorsement, and a three film Warner Brothers deal. The Fat Boys had ALL OF THAT exposure before the majority of the nation had ever heard of Doug E Fresh.
Beatboxing slowly began appearing on records. The next recording that I can think of that had some memorable Beat Box action was the Aleem brothers produced “Cosmic Blast” by Captain Rock. We eagerly awaited the cue of “as I rock you through the galaxy…here comes the BLAST!” That’s where we joined in with Richie Rich on the quick, twelve second Beat Box session. UTFO’s “Bite It” had a Beat Box in there…I’m assuming it’s Doctor Ice (he Beat Box on Lethal’s “So Be it”). But the floodgates for Beat Boxing would soon open up with the breakthrough single of the self-proclaimed Original Beat Box, the “World’s Greatest Entertainer” Doug E Fresh.
Let me tell you…because it’s a different world now…the first time we heard “The Show” it was electric. You have to figure, at that time, everything pretty much held on to the same sound that was ushered in by Run DMC. There were different variations, Word of Mouth’s “King Kut” comes to mind, but more or less, the songs were similar.
Andre Harrell recently called “The Show” the first New Jack Swing song. Although Teddy Riley produced it, you already know my tight criteria for what is New Jack Swing. Nonetheless, it was incredibly different.
We were back in Denver by this time and to hear a song that was “new” on the East Coast…in real time in some place like Denver, with no video, no magazines, that song had to be a monster…and it was. “The Show” could mash up a party then…and still can now.
But what makes this one of the greatest singles in Hip-Hop history was the B-Side was comparable in epic proportion-ness. “La Di Da Di” was damn shocking (to a 13 year old). You may have heard cursing on bootleg tapes of routines, but on a recorded song? Man, never. Not to mention, it was the introduction to most of us of the great storytelling skills of Slick Rick aka MC Rickie Dee.
“The Show” was commercial and large and played everywhere. “La Di Da Di” was more underground. And that’s how we loved it. Me & Aiyetoro KMT used to do our version of the song on bus rides to Hill Middle school (I told you, I was a serviceable Beat Box) and we would have our classmates in stitches.
Success breeds imitators. After “La Di Da Di” a slew of Beat Box backed songs about women with a bit of singing in them filled the airwaves. Stetsasonic had “Faye,” the “Mighty” Mitchski had “Freeda,” Mikey D gave us “Dawn,” Just Ice’s interest was in “Latoya,” even Eazy E has his woman, Beat Box backed song (sans the singing) “Fat Girls.”
And that ain’t all. Beat Boxing just took off. It seemed that everyone had one or everyone was trying. Greg Nice, of Nice & Smooth, started out as a Beat Box. Even Run was Beat Boxing (There was a video circulating on YouTube and many of the Hip-Hop sites a few years back of an early LL Cool J show in Maine…LL was Beat Boxing).
It became how outsiders of the culture identified with us. When white kids wanted to make fun of rap, one of the first weapons in their arsenal was imitating the Fat Boys Buffy (followed by the faux b-boy stance, pointing pinky move, and the dismount of “yo, yo, yo”).
Doug E Fresh made it a point to set the record straight. What Doug E dealt with is the ongoing battle between what’s going on in the streets and what the masses see because of recorded rap. Doug E Fresh built his reputation in the streets.
Once it shot through the street it was known that I was that dude that (sic) known as the beatbox. I would rhyme, but the beatbox would separate me from the rest that much more. It made me even greater in a sense because it was an element of hip-hop that never really existed and I created it. Doug E Fresh
Doug E Fresh goes on to emphasize his place as the originator of the Human Beat Box style:
I can never say people hadn’t done beats with their mouth — but I can say that the person who coined the phrase ‘the human beatbox’ and took it to the stage and took it in front of people and actually did the beatbox, was me.
Beat Boxing became like all the other aspects of Hip-Hop, innovators made a name for themselves and changed the game. I don’t know why me and Reginald McKie were so staunch in our hate for the Skinny Boys. Maybe it was their name. I know I hated that synth in “Jock Box” (which I love now). Sayyed Khaaliq Munajj said we was, “on some bullshit.” Whatever it was, it blinded us to how nice Jock Box was.
I mentioned “Latoya” and “Faye” above. They were cool. But the thing about both of those songs is they were supported by drum machine beats. It wasn’t just raw Beat Boxing. It would be another year before someone really blew us away.
I mentioned it in a comment before, but I can’t say it enough — people and their revisionist history have things twisted. Sure, Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince made “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” It was a monster hit. MTV ate that shit up. The suburbs devoured it. But that was just a song. Fresh Prince was an MC…not just a rapper…an MC — meaning Master of Ceremony, meaning he earned his reputation in Philadelphia…in the 80s…by going around and battling MCs wherever he found them. He did this with his Beat Box — Ready Rock C.
Our introduction to Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince wasn’t “Parents Just Don’t Understand” anyway. Nor was it the prototype to that song, “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble.” The first song we heard was on a “State of Fresh, BLS” tape brought to us by Bronx transplant, Kev Rock. That song was “The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff.”
I could write a ten minute piece on that song alone, but if you were alive and cognizant and into Hip-Hop, you already know what I mean. But that made us buy the album as soon as it dropped.
We skipped those first two songs (which took work with a cassette) and went straight to “Rock the House.” First off…it’s recorded live. There’s no studio trickery taking place. Second of all…it’s recorded live…at Union Square, an infamous head-busting club in the 80s similar to it’s uptown rival, the Latin Quarters. Jazzy Jeff, the Fresh Prince, & Ready Rock C are from Philly in a time where New York rap was on some serious snobbery shit. But they control the crowd. How? Ready Rock C’s amazing Beat Boxing skills.
We couldn’t believe that he was doing a call and response with the Fresh Prince while maintaining the beat. We couldn’t believe the amount of bass he was able to achieve on the mic. And it was such a well put together routine. By a minute in, the tough audience is chanting, “Go Ready Rock, Go Ready Rock.”
What Will does next is the same thing he does on “The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff,” he says rhymes that lead into Ready Rock demonstrating his various techniques starting with imitating a scratch.
By the time the Fresh Prince tells him to play “Sanford & Son,” they own the crowd and you really just have to listen to it to understand what I’m saying. Because when he tells Ready Rock to play that theme underwater, the crowd is in a constant state of “HOs!” So Ready Rock C doing “Big Beat”…and then doing it backwards is just icing on the cake.
It was the greatest exhibition of Beat Boxing that we had seen up until that point and it set the bar really high. We witnessed an amazing feat of breath control, technique, tricks, bass, and most important for us, interaction with an MC. If someone was going to be the best in Beat Boxing, they had to top that.
The masses know Biz Markie, if they know him at all, from his hit “Just a Friend.” I guess, if I’m a musically ambitious youth, I’m being introduced to Biz for the first time on The Avalanches latest album. Or if you have young children…you might know Biz from “Yo Gabba Gabba.”
As a Hip-Hop investigator, I’m blown away every time when I find yet another rapper’s life that Biz Markie’s intersected. A few years back, Big Daddy Kane spoke about how pivotal Biz was in his career. And for those folks really trying to dig up the history, I’m sure you’ve heard the live recording of Rakim rhyming while Biz Beat Boxed for him at Wyandanch High School.
Our first introduction to Biz, however, was earlier than the former but a little later than the latter. Our previously mentioned source for NY radio joints, Kev Rock, blessed us with 98.7 Kiss tape. We’re talking 87. That was the first time we heard that “1–2, 1–2” Radio promo with Biz and TJ Swann. Same tape, “Make the Music with Your Mouth Biz.” A year later, “Goin’ Off” was released in what turned out to be a golden time for Hip-Hop and R&B.
“Goin’ Off” was a solid album and while Biz Markie Beat Boxed here and there, there wasn’t a “Beat Box Song” per se.
Modern Hip-Hop historians consider Biz Mark a part of some holy trinity of Beat Boxes. He was and is good but (see: above on Ready Rock C) there were so many greats in that era. Music, however, was changing.
The technique of sampling was coming into it’s own. Producers were making sound collages and the Beat Box became a relic of another era. Aside from the Leaders of the New School outro (tacked on the end of “Where Do We Go From Here”) you wouldn’t hear Beat Boxing on any album.
Before I started writing this, I read as many of the Beat Box pieces as I could stomach. One article attributed the first vocal scratching on record to Rahzel….in 1999. (See: above on Ready Rock C).
And none of these articles mentioned a song that swept the clubs and dancehalls in the winter of 93. Of course the song we’re talking about is the Doug E Fresh produced track, “Freaks” featuring Lil Vicious. (I know the album title has it reversed, so what)
If we’re going to talk about what pushed the art form of Beat Boxing forward, it would be impossible to do so without mentioning this song.
Anyone familiar with the era knows that dancehall or rockers as we called it, was very large in the early to mid 90s. So large that many o rapper had faux reggae artist on their tracks.
“Freaks” though, that jawn was authentic…and it had two easy sells: a teen and Doug E Fresh. As far as the production, there’s definitely some studio work, but it’s done oh so well. It’s not overproduced. I would guess that are at least five tracks: the basic riddim, the bass line, the ad lib track with “Word up,” and “Come on,” the “Freaks” track, and the vocal track.
“Freaks” moved recorded Beat Boxing into genres beyond the regular Hip-Hop beats and was a sign of what would come in the next seven years…Beat Boxing breaking completely free and into a new world, a world where it would stand on it’s own.
Remember when we mentioned that song “Dawn” by Mickey D? Well, the Beat Box on that track was no other than Rahzel. That was 87.
Sometimes the internet is a major let down — that or what I’m looking for truly doesn’t exist because searching for what Rahzel did between 87 and 94 (when he joined The Roots) yields nothing. There’s a video interview where Rah talks about going all over and battling. He mentions going to the Latin Quarters and attempting to battle Doug E Fresh. Did he? He mentions battling the mentor of another Beat Box giant, Kenny Muhammad, who went by the name of Human Beat Box King. No interviews of him? I thought there would be a plethora of interviews of Rahzel…but alas…
Suffice it to say, Rahzel, as a part of the constantly touring Roots Crew Collective, tour down stage after stage. His Beat Boxing technique at this point far surpassed what one expected from a Beat Box. Rah specialized in doing what seemed inhuman — doing beats and vocals almost simultaneously. In that same video interview that we mentioned above, Rah said the secret behind this technique was he studied the beats of the Bomb Squad and studied the work of Bobby McFerrin and started to focus less on the beat and more on composition.
The other Twin Tower leading into the new millenium was the a formentioned Kenny Muhammad. Muhammad first burst on the scene when he controlled and won over the super tough crowd of the legendary Apollo Theater. He did this three consecutive times and that was enough to make it possible for Muhammad to book shows all over the world.
Muhammad sped up the tempo, maintained clarity, and eventually started doing what people call “the wind technique.” Translated into B-Boy: Muhammad did “Numbers,” a song made by the pivotal German band, Kraftwerk, whose works would be the backbone of Cold Crush routines (among many others) and the foundation of “Planet Rock.”
When Kenny Muhammad and Rahzel teamed up for the hidden Man vs Machine track, they drafted the blueprint for what Beat Boxing would become.
When I look at Beat Boxing now, it’s the same way that I look at breakdancing and turntablism, while the craft continues to evolve and take on new dimensions, separated from rapping and rocking a crowd, it doesn’t hold my interest. It’s almost sterile. B-boys got busy on the breaks because they were inspired by the music, the DJs played the music that inspired the people to dance, and Beat Boxing was a support for the MC. You separate one from the other I feel that the purpose is lost…and therefor the spirit.
You can go online and “learn” how to Beat Box now. There are people giving TEDtalks on Beat Boxing. Beat boxers do dub step. Beat Boxers do drum n bass. Beat Boxers do every genre imaginable. All of that has scientists studying Beat Boxing. Check this conclusion:
The data reveal that beatboxing performance involves the use of the full range of airstream mechanisms found in human languages, as well as the strategic use of ingressive pulmonic airflow to minimize interruptions to the vocal delivery due to breathing. The study of beatboxing performance has the potential to provide important insights into articulatory coordination in speech pro- duction, and mechanisms of perception of simultaneous speech and music. Michael I. Proctor, Shrikanth Narayanan, Krishna Nayak
We can’t say that Beat Boxing is a “Lost Art,” because there are Beat Box teams, competitions, websites, etc. Justin Timberlake is often called to Beat Box. Timbaland incorporates Beat Boxing in many of his tracks. But Beat Boxing is hardly a part of the mass culture and certainly is not an element of Hip-Hop that’s been passed down to the younger generation of the people who created the art form.
Coda:
If we had to have a veritable “where are they now,” it would be an interesting study. I can start with my older brother. After he and a brother Ray Rock (I believed that’s what he called himself) attracted attention from some Los Angeles record labels, Reginald McKie decided against doing unsavory acts to be signed much to Ray’s chagrin. They would have been the first act signed out of Denver.
Sadly, Buffy passed away at the very young age of 28. According to the New York Times, he weighed 450lbs at the time. What happened to The Fat Boys is unfortunately a common story. The same thing that made them famous, Charles Stettler’s use of their weight and humor, is what ruined whatever legacy they would have otherwise had. They’ve been reduced to a Chris Rock line in “Boomerang.”
Doug E Fresh and Biz Markie are still going strength for strength. Those brothers are hustlers and always find a way to make a buck. When I was in college, Biz Mark was a touring DJ. He booked shows off his name alone. As I said above, Biz Markie had a recurring role on “Yo Gabba Gabba” (My youngest son enjoyed Biz’s “Beat of the Day”). Doug E Fresh meanwhile can be heard on the radio, he pops up at various award shows, has a presence on social media…Doug E ain’t never left.
I saw a recent Unkut article featuring the Skinny Boys, so Jock Box seems to still be in good health and spirits. And the song “Jock Box” has recently been introduced to a new audience as the “Workaholics” theme song. I read something about Ready Rock C…he’s no longer performing but lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife and four children. Wise, the Prince of Sound, the Beat Box behind “Faye” is a born-again Christian residing in Virginia. As for Caption Rock (“Cosmic Blast”), MB, the Human Radio (“Freeda”), The Human DMX (“Latoya”), Ron-De-Vu (“Fat Girl”), I have no information on any of them.
Seems like the Beat Box went the way of the Rap group dancer.
And me, I still entertain my children with an occasional drum roll or rendition of a modern song. They seem to be entertained. Like I said, my Beat Box skills are servicable.
