"Sharper." "Press your lips together hard." "Ever heard of Beatboxing?" " No." "Or Beatboxers?" " No." "Human Beatbox?" "I don't..." "Oh, right, yes." "Making beatbox sounds." "Making noises with your mouth." "A kind of microphone art..." "Done with the voice." "And it's heavy on the beat." "A sort of rhythm group with mouth-made beats." "No, what's that?" "Beat... what?" "Hi, there!" "Welcome to my pastures!" "That's my dog, Toby." "Sit!" "Very obedient, huh?" "Mostly cooped up inside Now we're out on the streets" "All around, far and wide Everyone's rockin' to Wetlipz' beats" "I'm Wetlipz, from the 4XSample Beatbox Crew." "And I'm thrilled to be here..." "Out in the sun..." "This is Pirat." "Go on!" " I'm Pirat MC of Berlinutz." "We do Hip-Hop and Rap, usually with these guys." "That's it..." " And we're having a beer." "You know, Beatboxing..." "When I started in 1999, 2000, people sounded like this." "Mostly crap." "Then I heard Rahzel and Killa Kela, and I was like, "Amazing!" "I want to do that!"" "Beatbox was so new people thought it was a martial art." ""Oh, really, Beatboxing?" "Can I see a move?"" ""You don't do moves, you make beats." That's how it was till about 2003, 2004." "In the first battles I was in, it was mostly Old School Beatboxing." "Basically pretty basic stuff, you know, like this..." "Doing that well, maybe adding a bit of scratching or melody, was enough to win a battle." "If the show was good, at least." "The show counted more then." "Today you'll go to a battle and some 18-year-old will rattle something off like a machine." "It sounds cool, sure, but it's almost... freaky." "That's what I'd call New School Beatbox." "Mando, my 4XSample Crew homie, was German Champion in 2006." "And he's very good, of course." "And what can I say?" "I'm sure he'll win this year, too..." "But it'll be harder this time." "Congratulations!" "LAST YEAR..." "BEATBOX CHAMPIONSHIP 2006" "The German Beatbox Champion:" "Mando from Berlin!" "Mando, come on and join us up here on the stage!" "Mando, from the 4XSample Crew, is... the new German Human Beatbox Champion!" "Congratulations!" "You won the Fourth German Championship!" "Here's your certificate." "Now the winner will serve up some beats with the golden mike!" "We need the blue cable, guys!" "Looks like it works." "Thanks!" " All right!" "We need to set up for later." "When I give a workshop, one of the main things I try to do is tell people about what Hip-Hop is, what its origins are and what it means." "There are five elements to Hip-Hop." "First of all the DJs, the guys on the turntables," "Then there's the MC, the Master of Ceremonies." "That's something a lot of newcomers don't know." "And then..." "Next there's Breakdance." "Breakdance is a word the media coined, though." "The real term for Breakdance is actually "b-boying."" "But the media dubbed it Breakdancing, so we'll use that term for the moment." "Then there's graffiti..." "Some call it vandalism, but we disagree." "Sure, there are jerks who scratch their tag into every glass pane around." "You can't even read them." "To me, that is vandalism." "And there's Beatboxing, the fifth element." "We had to fight hard to get it officially recognized as such." "About three years ago we won, and now it's the fifth element." "Wait..." "How did that go again?" "Right..." "Let's hear some Rap." "Wherever in Berlin that I go The DJs ain't got soul, ain't got flow" "All the stuff that I'm hearin' Is so shitty and dreary" "Every jerk thinks he's king Even kids of ten" "Not yet in their teens Get fucked up in this scene" "The system's a bitch Every jerk wants to get rich" "Pen bad rhymes about tits and speed And call himself an MC" "To know what I mean Check out Rap City Berlin" "You suck, your business is weak Listen to me, you kids in our scene" "You're way better than those freaks!" "This aggro vibe in Berlin That sucks, it's got to stop" "And it's going to kill Hip-Hop" "Cool." "You done?" " Yup, done." "My turn." " Okay, you rap now." "And I'll do Beatbox?" " Yeah." "Sittin' here on the meadow Feelin' pretty mellow" "Yeah, this is cool Though I wish I had a stool" "Having a root up my butt kinda blows But that's okay, I got flow" "Sitting on the grass That's got class" "Cool, huh?" "Bet you can't top that." " Yeah." "Strike!" "Right!" "All right!" "I grew up in a high-rise project." "I said to my mom once the streets were my school." "But that's bullshit." "I'm a pretty normal guy." "My family's cool, but my dad's an asshole." "He left us when I was ten." "My mom told him to fuck off." "It was better that way, though at first I freaked out." "They asked me who I wanted to live with and I said" "I'd rather live on the street." "I tried it, but I lasted about two hours." "Then I'd had it and went home crying." "But that's history." "Anyway, I grew up in what used to be East Berlin and dropped out of high school." "I had other things on my mind, and I mean, literally." "Around the same time I moved closer to the center, to Friedrichshain." "I got a job where I trained to be a game-level designer, bla bla..." "What can I say, I think do pretty well." "People always say I'm spaced out." "But I'm no space cadet, I know what I'm doing." "What's taking him so long?" " Yeah..." "If that flake isn't here by the time I count to three!" "One..." "Two..." "Two-and-a-half..." "Lucky for him!" " That was close." "Coming!" "That's it, keep it up, guys!" "Sorry, I had to go buy beer." "The beginning is fairly easy." "It starts out with a hi-hat..." "That kind of thing." "It starts out smooth." "It's fairly slow at first." "And then it builds up." " Right, later it's..." "And who's going to do..." "the hi-hat?" "Me." " I agree." "My parents are from Argentina, from San Nicolás near Buenos Aires." "It's around 30 kilometers south of the capital, about as far away as Bonn is from Cologne." "I was born here in Germany." "I've been doing Beatbox for six years." "And I really enjoy doing lip disco." "The battles are where you get together and meet people." "It's like a forum where Beatboxers meet, in Germany at least." "And then we have jam sessions on the street." "Just like in the Bronx, with braziers and "yo!" all around." "Well, almost..." "It was dark, anyway." "So, we had this session and they showed me some stuff..." "And Mando said he could tell I had talent, but we both kind of held back at first." "It was funny, he was the only one who was holding back like that." "I suspected right away there was more..." " That he had more tricks up his sleeve." "'Cause everyone else was going all out to impress, but he just listened in, with maybe a "pfft" now and then..." "But the others..." " Yeah." "Then we realized we were way cooler than the others, so we swapped numbers and decided to get together." "We'd heard there was a championship for teams..." "So they exchanged numbers and met, and Mando told me that he'd met the horse guy." "I said, "Oh, the horse guy." I called him Jolly Jumper." "That's Lucky Luke's horse." "Show him why they call you that." " Yeah!" "Well, it's because..." "It's 'cause of a sound I really like and was the first to perform on stage." "Then there was the Hip-Hop World Challenge..." "We were the only team representing Germany, which was great." "The jury awarded us second place, that is, we were vice world champions, but unfortunately that's not official." " No official title is bestowed." "The jury just mentioned it in passing." " That was a shame." "They loved it and told us it was really close." "But in the end Australia won both the solo and team competition, something we hope to do this year." "There's something going on in Berlin pretty much every week." "In 2005 we gave 83 performances." "Meaning we were drunk at least 83 times." "Where does Beatbox fit in with Hip-Hop?" "It's said to be "the fifth element"..." "I disagree:" "I consider it the first." "The technique is difficult to learn" "It requires a lot tongue and finger skills, plus a good sense of rhythm and musical talent..." "Beatbox isn't just Hip-Hop." "You can apply it to any musical genre:" "Drum 'n' Bass, Techno, Reggae, Ragga, Dance Hall..." "Besides that, Beatbox can be used to achieve all kinds of special effects, of course." "You can imitate horses, explosions, helicopters..." "The Foley artist's craft, which came in with silent films is now called Beatboxing." "With 4XSample, we always prepare sets of about four to six minutes." "For the simple reason that that's the time limit you have in most battles." "Usually we rehearse at my house or Mando's..." "We listen to songs we want to cover or use for bastard pop, where you mix the beat from one track with lyrics from another." "So we'll work out a set, and in between maybe do some freestyle." "We'll just jam till we come up with something cool or an interesting pattern." "Pattern are specific sequences of measures that can vary in length and are repeated in loops." "And that's how sets are born." "But we've started using ten-minute sets." "It just gives you more time." "Four minutes, that can be exhausting." "We did one set in the 2005 championships that contained 14 songs." "Just imagine, 14 songs in four minutes, plus scratches and solo parts!" "It gets too much for people to take in." "Of course we hear every single beat, but for the audience, it's just a blur." "By the time they recognize a song and start clapping, it's long gone." "So we're cooling it down..." "Doing longer sets..." "and writing them down." "I'll kick the beat, you rap?" " Like always." "Yup." " Yup." "What tempo?" " I don't know, around 95 or 98 bpm." "Okay..." "No, seriously..." "Sittin' here in the park Makin' our mark" "Enjoyin' the weather Chillin' together" "Berlinutz says turn it up, I agree Berlin's cool, the place to be" "And we're lovin' it, livin' it, Beatboxin' and rappin' it." "That's me, I'm not no hectic MC I do it nice and cool and easy" "Keeping things real in my head So many MCs in this town are stupid" "So come on down And see the best in town:" "Wetlipz, Berlinutz, Zirkus Mandolini And all the girls in bikinis" "Girls dancing, baring it all And I'll beat that weenie MC at pinball" "I'm all charged with energy Just like that dolphin on TV" "So come and see us anytime We're in our prime, we have the rhymes" "Moving our lips a mile a minute Keeps us sharp, keeps us fit" "Oops, lost my thread But that's okay, time for bed" "Tomorrow it's off to work in Neukölln Early bird gets the worm" "When I do Beatboxing, I'm the kind of guy who was born to make other people laugh." "It may sound weird, but it's true." "It makes me happy when I can get people to laugh and say, "That guy's cool." "I dig him."" "That goes for when I perform on stage, too." "You joke around with the audience, keep the banter coming..." "If a guy heckles, I might josh him, "Just a minute, Sugar!"" "Once they're laughing and eating out of your hand..." "Then you put on your best show and they lap it up..." "That's like pure gold." "That's just the best." "And I just go with the flow and enjoy it." "When I get home from my drum lessons, I always practice the new patterns with my mouth." " Cool." "What does that sound like?" "Like this..." "Wow." "Great... job..." "I'll say!" "Now let's have some yummy cocoa, okay?" "I'm Bee Low from Berlin and I founded Beatbox Battle." "I busted my ass over the last few years to provide the German Beatbox community with a forum for fair competition." "I started out hosting DJ battles." "I would time the DJs with a stopwatch, each one would get 90 seconds." "And when there was a technical glitch, the sound guys had to replug cables or whatever..." "In situations like that, as the host I'd take the mike and keep the audience entertained with some beats till the next act went on." "That's when I realized how well Beatbox went over." "People liked it in its own right, apart from the battles." "So I thought, 'Why not have our own event?" "'" "And the idea for the Beatbox Championship was born." "The plans gradually took on shape in 2001." "Maxim, may he rest in peace, who's sadly no longer on this planet..." "He and I thought everything through and planned it all out together." "And on September 19, 2002, we held the first German Championships at the Icon in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg." "Zeero won the first title in 2002, and when the event was over, we did some publicity work, sent out press releases..." "We spread the word to people, and the feedback was incredible." "Right away, we were invited to the Austrian championship..." "Zeero and I traveled to Switzerland, and it continued with Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, the UK..." "Beatbox Battle was everywhere." "I was at all the events." "Usually I was on the jury, as I couldn't very well host in Finnish or whatever..." "Two champions, and the man who made them:" "Me." "Hey!" " Hi!" "You have ten minutes?" "Sure." " Great." "Hi, there." "How are you doing?" "Here are the contracts." "Pretty standard." "A copy for each of us." "But don't let them see." "That's strictly confidential." " Okay." "Shit, I'm in business but I haven't seen a cent." "It pisses me off, honestly." "As I was saying, for the past few years" "I've been hosting events throughout Europe." "That includes DJ Championships held by the ITF and DMC," "Breakdance championships, and various Rap battles." "I've seen the dissing at Rap battles." ""I'll fuck your mama..."" ""Your daddy this or that..."" "And then a big fight breaks out, bottles fly, the cops come..." "And in the end the lights go on and the party's ruined." "That's not my scene." "To me, it's about the element..." "It's about demonstrating our skills on stage in a fair way, showing what we can do, something not everyone can do." "And, without wanting to boast, battling in a fair competition." "That's why I always try to convey to people:" "Being there is what counts, not winning." "Get to know each other..." "It's not about "that guy's my enemy" and all that." "Sure, when they're on stage, face to face, they'll eyeball each other and try look intimidating, you know, mock shooting and stabbing..." "But there's no real violence of any kind." "And when the show is over and they go backstage, it's friendly handshakes and slaps on the back, and they swap numbers and e-mail addresses." "The best example is the 4XSample Crew here in Berlin." "They met at a Beatbox Battle, they really hit it off, and decided to found a crew." "Now they do professional recordings." "I'm Zeero, two-time German Beatbox Champion." "I won twice, but the bigger deal to me is that I was the first." "That's something no one can ever take from me." "We were 13 or 14." "I don't know if I should say this, but weed was actually what brought us together." "I had this computer game he liked and he had the connections." "So we got together one evening, hung out, gamed, and got high." "He asked if I wanted to listen to some music." "I figured he meant on his ghetto blaster and said "sure" and kept playing." "When he started making these sounds, I just stared and thought," "'Wow, what's that?" "' I had never heard anything like it." "And he knew some ace tricks, for those days." "First I just watched five or ten minutes as he did this Breakdance beat." "And then he went on to do a whole show with all sorts of beats, and I went on playing Mortal Kombat on the side." "That was my first encounter with Beatbox." "There was this telephone chat..." "People would meet in chat rooms and talk, kind of like on the Internet today, but on the phone." "I recognized a friend's voice, but he didn't recognize me." "So I start saying his name in a robot voice and imitating Rahzel beats." "He thought it was the CD and is like, "Cool, Rahzel!"" "He got the CD 'cause of me, actually." "So when I said his name, he was bowled over." ""Hey, who is this?"" "When he realized it was me, he said," ""Hey, I want to see you do that myself." "I bet you used a computer!"" "When I did a demonstration, he said, "That's great, you should keep it up."" "Soon after that I met Bee Low..." "He got me to go on stage with him, and it kind of went from there." "Soon people knew about me, a few, at least." "Okay, that's enough!" " Out, out!" "Bee Low, he's some guy!" "Maximum respect!" "Just thinking of him makes me grin, you know?" "The way I see it, Bee Low is the godfather of Beatbox." "The seminal battler, in Germany, especially." "He's amazing." "I just love him." "He MCs at all the Beatbox battles." "He pretty much invented the scene." "It was a struggle at first, but now it's a Europe-wide thing." "Worldwide, even." "Bee Low knows people everywhere." "And practically every Beatboxer in the world knows who he is." "So, really, all I can say is:" "Maximum respect to Bee Low!" "Oralic Sound Machines, Machines, Machines..." "For me, it all started when..." "Around '83 or '84." "It was a bit different with me than most others." "I didn't get into it by hearing stuff from the States." "In my case it all started with me trying to imitate different sounds." "I actually wanted to do stand-up comedy originally." "I experimented a lot." "I'd do animal noises James Brown loops, and stuff like that." "I'd do live performances, with just a mike." "And it really went over well, too." "I traveled all over the place." "And then, sometime in '84 or '85, someone told me Beatboxing had its roots in Hip-Hop." "And that someone was Maxim." "I had my posse in Wedding, the part of Berlin where I was born and raised." "Maxim's scene was Kreuzberg and Schöneberg." "We each did our thing on our own turf, but then we got to know each other." "But due to the tensions between Wedding and Kreuzberg we'd actually meet secretly to practice." "Before the Wall fell, we used to meet at Friedrichstrasse station 'cause it was neutral territory and the cops couldn't bother us." "We became good friends with the guys from the BVG transit authority." "They'd turn the key, a huge wrench, and say," ""Stand clear of the closing doors."" "And there would be a microphone and speakers on the left side, and the same thing on the right side." "So, we got hold of one of the keys and presto:" "Beatbox in the subway." "Back when I started coming here and started hanging out and I first heard them doing Beatbox," "I thought, 'What's that?" "'" "I was kind of intrigued by it, but I at first I was too shy to get up in front of the guys all alone, as a girl." "But Mesia kept saying, "Come on, why don't you give it a try?"" "I was still scared, but finally I got up my nerve and did." "It kind of went from there." "I kept at it... and here I am." "Mesia and those guys were my teachers." "They showed me lots of stuff." "I'm Neves, and my Beatbox group is called Oralic Sound Machines." "It's been about five years." "At first I wasn't into it at all." "I thought it was really weird, like:" "'What the hell is that?" "'" "But then one day I went to see Killa Kela perform." "He's from the U.K. And he's really well known." "I ended up talking to him, and after the show I was so psyched that I just had to learn that and get so good that people would really get off on it." "Just percussion, melodies..." "You know, stuff that grabs people." "And things just kind of fell into place." "I practiced a lot on my own..." "Then a year or two later, I met Mesia, who was still with Maxim back then." "I attended a few Beatbox workshops, and it went from there." "I'm sorry to say Maxim passed away a few years ago." "A situation got out of hand and there was a big blow up." "But Mesia is the one to ask about that." "He knows more about it than I do." "The only people who know what really happened are the ones who were there." "But according to the official story, at least, the official version of events, his wife was out shopping..." "She had the baby along in a stroller." "She didn't get a shopping cart 'cause she couldn't push both, so she loaded the groceries onto the stroller." "The problem was, this older man took offense to that, or however you want to call it." "He went running to the cashier and accused her of shoplifting 'cause she wasn't using a cart, whatever." "Which was true, she was using the stroller." "Anyway, the man sent the cashier over, but when he saw her, he said, "Oh, she's a regular customer!" "She never uses a cart, it's no problem."" "Well, the old geezer got upset..." "He felt he wasn't being taken seriously, whatever, and made a huge scene." "Anyway, it was Maxim's birthday." "That's why she'd gone shopping at all." "So she gets home and tells him about it, not to egg him on, but just..." ""Unbelievable, this old geezer just accused me of stealing!"" ""He's still down there, making a scene and ranting on about calling the cops."" "So Maxim goes down to set things straight." ""We're good customers here and we don't steal."" ""So please stop harassing my wife."" "Well, before he could even finish his sentence, the guy pulled a knife and stabbed him in the chest." "And as luck would have it, or bad luck, rather he got him right in the heart." "It wasn't even a long knife, either." "Just an itty-bitty thing." "I guess as a young man he must've had special military training." "Either in the West or East German army." "Whatever, one stab and he killed him." "Thank you all for coming and being here to support his mom." "We only just found out she comes here every year to honor Maxim, at the site where he died." "And as we already said, he not only died on that day, it was his birthday, too." "I mean, on the same day, that's just..." "How could something like that happen?" "We still can't grasp it, the wound still sits deep in his brothers' hearts." "We can't forget him, because Maxim..." "Let me just say a few words about Maxim..." "Maxim was the one who launched Hip-Hop in Berlin." "He was the one who introduced it to people here." "No one had even heard of Hip-Hop in '82." "He was the one who first brought all the American stuff over here." "He passed it on to the kids and got them interested so they wouldn't devote their energy to criminal pursuits or whatever, but to dancing instead." "'Cause Hip-Hop is an entire culture, a culture Maxim tried to foster and worked to preserve." "And..." "As I said, it's hard for me to find the right words, 'cause this is the place where he died." "Where he was killed in cold blood, if you ask me." "But the authorities didn't see it that way, and we just can't understand that." "We still can't quite believe it." "And don't forget the ideals Maxim upheld:" "No violence and no intolerance..." "toward people of other races." "Maxim didn't care if you were German, Turkish, Arab or whatever." "He invited groups from the West to come to Berlin." "When bitter turf battles were being waged here over tags or streets or names or whatever..." "Maxim made people see that wasn't the way to go, that wasn't the message of Hip-Hop culture." "Maxim tried to unite us, make us one." "Maxim lives on in all of us, in our hearts." "Thank you, everybody." "So there I was, on my own." "At first, I was ready to quit." "I mean, you work hard and practice for ten or twelve years, only to be told you can forget it, it's all over 'cause your partner died..." "You wouldn't believe the stuff I had to listen to." "Anyway, I tried to..." "I wouldn't say escape, but get my mind on other things, by working like a fiend." "Mostly with young people, holding workshops and so on, to carry on what we'd started." "If we couldn't work as a group, at least I could pass the legacy on to the kids we'd been coaching." "And somehow, the spark really ignited..." "Eventually, we had a group of about ten students who were totally keen to learn and work together as a group." "So one of them said, "Maxim's gone." "You two were Oralic Sound Machines."" ""You taught us." "Now we'll be Oralic Sound Machines."" "I thought that was a great idea." "The cool thing about Maxim, what fascinates me, is..." "Yeah, initially it was with Mesia, but also on his own..." "He'd go to the kids on the streets and encourage them to do something:" "Breakdance, scratching, DJ-ing, whatever." "He inspired them, showed them they could do more than just dis each other and get in fights." "He made them see that's not cool." "Beatboxing, Breakdancing, turntabling..." "Winning people over with skill..." "that's cool." "I really respect him for that." "There are a lot of kids out there with nowhere to go." "Their parents have their own problems and they're on the streets, harassing cigarette vendors for fun." "That's just the pits." "That's where Maxim tried to make a difference, and I wish a lot more people would follow his example." "That's what we're trying to do, anyway:" "Love, peace and Beatbox." "I saw how Maxim and the Old School legend Sugar Box incorporated Beatbox in their shows and the audiences loved it." "That really inspired me when I was a kid." "And I hung out with Maxim a lot." "He was like a big brother to me." "He introduced me to graffiti and Beatbox and all that." "Most important, he was a good friend." "That went beyond Hip-Hop." "And sadly, with his tragic death, when he was murdered on his 33rd birthday, our dream died along with him." "Maxim had the potential to go really far and make a true difference in this world." "But we're going to keep nurturing the roots we put down with him and build on them along with DJ Mesia." "And we'll hold them in respect and make sure others do, too." "We know Maxim is watching from up there and trusts us to do the right thing:" "Not to sell out the Beatbox community but to be there for them." "Women in the Beatbox scene..." "There aren't very many." "I think partly it's because a lot of them think they could never learn to do that." "It is often pretty heavy on the bass, after all." "But besides that, I think maybe..." "I guess a lot of them, how should I say are kind of inhibited." "They're scared to try it and to venture into that world." "And you do have to prove yourself, after all." "The cool thing about Beatboxing is you don't need any equipment." "Just yourself, and stamina." "You can realize your ideas right away and turn them into music." "You can do it anywhere, anytime." "You can have fun and entertain others." "Time to take off winter attire The down jacket's got to go" "Get rid of that spare tire Now it's fun in the sun, let's go" "Let's play hooky and have a lark Let's go party in the park" "A few 'shrooms and some weed What fun, that's all we need" "Now it's light till ten p.m. We can hang in the park and jam" "We can barbecue and party all night Hey, it's 90 degrees outside" "Time for block parties, open-air Feel that tropical flair, oh yeah" "Girls strut their stuff, lookin' pretty It's summer in the city" "Head for the park or a pool that's near Hey, this is our time of year" "Berlin seems far away And who needs money, anyway?" "The love, the heat, what you feel That's it, the real deal" "Just get out, go for it, man!" "Yeah, Hip-Hop..." "Hip-Hop is cool, definitely." "And..." "I think the whole Hip-Hop lifestyle is pretty cool." "But it can be kind of tiring and infantile, too." "Some things really get on my nerves, like those MCs on "Rap City Berlin."" "They're not all like that, but a lot." " Pretty much everyone but me." "Hip-Hop is just a word." "They needed a name they could use to introduce it to the wider public." "I only heard the term Hip-Hop later." "In '83 I was into Breakdance, as a dance form and as music." "Which was basically breakbeats that the MC would rap along to." "It wasn't like today's Rap, where guys like 50 Cent combine RB with rap passages." "Back then the DJ was the main element." "The DJ was the king on stage." "The MC was the sidekick who presented him: "This is my DJ!"" ""Yo, you wanna hear what my DJ can do?" "Then listen up, folks!"" "I was being crap on purpose just now, to make a point." "Back then MCs didn't really do Rap." "Sure, Grandmaster Flash on The Message, the Furious Five... they rapped." "It was a stylistic element." "And a style in its own right, sure..." "But we never referred to it as Hip-Hop." "To me it was Rap music and Breakdance." "And to our mind, breakbeats were the defining feature." "What it's really about is a certain attitude, a lifestyle." "It's meaningful 'cause you're part of a community, if you're not into the MC scatology thing, that is." "And it's a culture understood around the world." "Like Heavy Metal is..." "I mean, what is hard rock?" "It's big hair, tattoos, riding a Harley, I don't know..." "It's a way of life." "And the same is true of Hip-Hop:" "It's a way of life." "There's a certain worldwide consensus about what constitutes Hip-Hop." "You move within those parameters and try to get the most out of them." "In brief:" "It's a culture and a way of life." "In the beginning, Hip-Hop was about hanging in the hood," ""us against the world," but it's not like that anymore." "Every Hip-Hopper says he's the greatest, the coolest, has the biggest balls..." "And everyone else is gay... or a "ho."" " But then..." "But if everyone sucks except for you, who's going to buy your stuff?" "Djibutie has a great line:" "The one people respect is king." "Not the guy who crowns himself." "There are a lot of posers in Rap who say they're king." ""I'm the greatest, the baddest, for this and that reason..."" "They don't get what Rap is about." "It's about being a community, not about being the greatest." "If people say you're the greatest, fine, but not 'cause you tell them to, but 'cause they liked your track and say so on their own." "That's what Rap's about:" "Not bigger balls or obscenity, but skill and smarts." "I want to welcome you all tonight to Kalkscheune for the Fifth German Beatbox Championship!" "But before we start..." "You guys were great last week!" " Thanks." "But you left so fast..." " Yeah, I was pretty beat." "It's hard physical labor, about as tiring as construction work." "You're going on alone today?" " Yeah." "Another guy from my band is also competing alone." "The short one?" " No, the tall skinny guy." "The guy from Zirkus Mandolini?" " Oh, okay." "Right..." "Wetlipz, or Kyrill." "So you may have to go up against him?" " Yeah." "It's happened twice." "It sucks, but..." "Depending on how things go, we might face each other early on or later." "In Munich it wasn't till the final." "That was great." "I ended up winning, but we had so much fun 'cause we knew that either way, we'd made the finals." "Tonight we're really going to rock the house!" "We're back to celebrate our fifth birthday, the Fifth German Beatbox Championship, here in Berlin!" "We just toured Germany and held five preliminary rounds, with the four best from each one qualifying for the final." "Tonight the best young talents in Human Beatboxing from all over Germany will be performing on this stage." "They're going to get those mikes rocking for you..." "And you know what else?" "They're going to party and have a great time with you guys!" "'Cause we're not like all those haters always dissing each other "Your mom this, bla bla..."" "We're a community and we're going to represent tonight with all of you guys!" "Beatbox, battle style!" "Get ready for Wetlipz!" "The two-minute elimination round..." "starts now:" "Go!" "Let's hear it for..." "Wetlipz!" "That was..." "Wetlipz!" "With the whinnying horse on the mike!" "We'll carry on with the battle here in about ten minutes." "So you four Beatboxers get ready, 'cause this is the real thing!" "Man-do!" "Dark-manz!" "And the first battle we're going to see is Mando versus Darkmanz!" "Uh, yeah, it was good..." "just not for me." "But even if I wasn't successful, I had fun." "The jury decides..." "Butjurors are only human, too." "So, I didn't make it past the first round, but whatever..." "My band 4XSample won the German Championship, so..." "Maybe I'm better as part of a band." "Maybe Mando will get to the final." "We'll see in a minute." "In any case, he already made it past some pretty tough competitors." "I definitely think he ought to be in the final." "But we'll see." "The jury decides, and jurors are human." "There can only be two people in the final." "I see a lot of you are waving flags..." "Let me see, who has the most fans?" "Yeah, Mando's in the final." "He's done it again!" "Mando will battle Robeat for the title of Fifth German Beatbox Champion." "Okay, Berlin..." "It's been an exciting night, and now here's the moment we've all been waiting for..." "Robeat:" "Get ready, get set..." "And go!" "You play the trumpet?" "Me, too." "You play the guitar?" "Me, too." "You want to drive?" "I'd take the subway if I were you." "Okay, get a load of this..." "My new shoes do some mean squeaks..." "And now backwards." "I would say that was pretty amazing, guys!" "That was the final with Robeat versus Mando!" "Zeero, come on up here, please!" "Zeero will present the golden microphone." "As you know, Zeero has two golden mikes himself, as a two-time German Beatbox Champion." "And today he'll present the golden mike to the new champion." "Mando is here, he's ready..." "Okay, both finalists are up here on the stage..." "We'll keep it short and sweet:" "Robeat, congratulations on winning second place!" "The German Vice-Champion!" "Congratulations!" "Second place... congratulations, man!" "All the best!" "Robeat, your show's the best, so take it to Stuttgart..." "You didn't win this time..." "But Stuttgart won in soccer, maybe the team can give you something to go with this certificate from us." "But, and I only wish Berlin's soccer team were so lucky..." "The old and new Beatbox Champion is..." "The title stays in Berlin..." "Our maximum respect to Mando, from the 4XSample crew!" "First of all, I want to thank my family, who supported me always!" "When I made funny noises in the shower, they didn't say I was crazy." "They said, "Hmm, interesting." "If you enjoy it, keep at it."" "I've been at it for eight years, and it's my life." "And my girlfriend and all my friends are here tonight, and I want to thank you all for being here!" "My roommate..." "My band..." "Thanks to everyone, this is awesome!" "And of course..." "Robeat!" "I want you to know he's the biggest talent around today, and one of the youngest, too." "He is just amazing, so give a big hand to Robeat!" "Enough bla bla, now for an encore before I get wasted!" "I hope you'll join me for a little session." "I want to play, too." " Okay, everybody join in." "You have to break in the gold mike." "Christen it with spit." " Okay, here goes..." "Volker!" "Thank you, thank you!" "It was awesome." "It was... a hard-won victory." "I'm dead tired, and all I want is to get wasted and celebrate with the band and all my friends." "I have to pee really bad, but I always have time for you guys:" "How are you?" "A lot has been happening for me lately:" "Gigs, projects, and so on, that have helped me grow as an artist." "That's one reason I was fortunate enough to win the title again." "It's important to me to keep developing." "You have keep pushing yourself and keep fit if you want to play in the big league." "And I try to do that:" "I quit smoking, I go jogging..." "I go swimming and work out regularly." "Beatboxing is very demanding physically, and if you smoke and don't keep fit through exercise, you're going to be exhausted after one round." "You can't keep your arms up." "You need great stomach muscles, which I don't have, but..." "But you need physical stamina." "And I try to keep as physically fit as possible so I can get through all the rounds on a day like this and still be able to stand and talk to you guys." "Well, I have a big piece of paper or several, actually, with my entire repertoire." "What you see here..." "is everything I can do." "That's my entire Beatbox art right there." "I should point out that the greatest crime in a battle is to repeat yourself." "If you do one beat three times, the jury will subtract points." "The other guy might not be as good, but he'll win if you repeat yourself." "He'll be rewarded for having the guts to try new things." "That's why I wrote down everything I do:" "The old stuff, the new stuff, the moves, the tricks..." "Then I cross out what I've done after each battle and use what's left." "In the end there were five or six I hadn't done yet that I was able to use, with success." "It worked out great." "And my opponent played along beautifully." "He left the goal wide open for me." "All I had to do was kick the ball in." "Though I have to say that Robeat, who was second and won for Best Show, really is a huge young talent." "I'm sure that in years to come we'll be seeing some wild stuff from him and he'll be a major force in the German Beatbox scene." "As for my future, I think I'll try to win a third title." "If I succeed... yippee." "If I don't... boo-hoo." "Either way, I'll participate one more time and try to go for a triple." "If I pull it off, I'd be the first to be German Champion three times in a row." "Then I'd retire, from the Championships, anyway." "Of course I still have my band." "We're going to tour, go to New York..." "Beatboxing will always be in my life." "But most people in the battling scene are really young, and I don't think I'll want to do that after next year." "I'll go for it one more time." "I'll work even harder, come with new sounds and an even longer list..." "Then maybe I can pull it off." "If not, at least I tried." "But I did it twice, like Zeero before me." "Major respect to him for that." "I just experienced for myself how hard it is to defend a title." "Boy, I thought it would..." "No, I didn't think it would be easier, but I hoped it would." "Way cool!" " Thank you all!" "First there was Bee Low Then came Mesia and all them bro's" "Then 4XSample came on the scene And stole the show" "Sorry, just kidding, you see Mesia, Bee Low and me go back a ways" "It was tough for all of us Back in the early days" "Beatbox wasn't for cash, just kicks Berlin was all workshops and basics" "Now Beatbox has unfurled its banner around the world" "Now Bee Low tours the globe, he rules And Mesia produces hits, way cool" "Maxim, you'd be proud So have fun up on your cloud" "Life's a breeze, you know If you take it easy, go with the flow" "Do your thing, let your ideas blossom Like 4XSample, man, awesome" "And Pirat from Berlinutz" "His rhymes kick butt, he rocks Now he's tryin' out Beatbox" "Most Beatbox ain't worth a mention Him and my band are the only exception" "But whatever, we're just going to jam Here in some park whose name I forgot" "But this shit is hot So peace, Bee Low, peace Mesia" "So peace to Maxim and peace to me And peace to 4XSample, definitely" "Here it comes:" "The Big Bang!" "There's a basic step in Breakdance:" "The six-step." "And there are three basic elements in Beatbox." "Here's the first:" "The kick." "Make it sharper." "Press your lips together hard." "One more time?" "That's better." "The next is the hi-hat." "You make a "ts" sound, like this." "Or just "ttt-ttt"..." "Like this, you know?" "I'll do it, then you try." "You can do better than that." "That's more like it." "One more time." "Okay." "Next you make a "k" sound, like this..." "And then put them all together..." "I have a pointer for you, as someone just starting out in Beatbox." "It helps to say "bad cat!" in German:" ""Böse Katze!"" "Training module one: "Böse Katze!""