Love, Peace And Beatbox Page #3

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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

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 Schneberg.

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

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