Love, Peace And Beatbox

---

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

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

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 f***ed up in this scene

The system's a b*tch 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 a**hole.

He left us when I was ten.

My mom told him to f*** 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 Nicols 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

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