Just seen the Beyond Beatboxing as part of Ether 2006 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall – where Faith SFX blew everyone away even though he was the first one one, he performed with Purple the grime rapper (alos on Urban Classic) and a very good singer and was amazing. Also performing was Foreign Beggars – very good, initially very US-hiphop based but when they did ‘London style’ and raised the tempo and did ragga/fast style rapping it was jaw dropping, and did some great acapellas. And Schlomo – beatboxing with a loop FX pedal and a drumkit was pretty good, boring with the drumkit even though he was doing some african rhythms but the drum and bass and rave beatboxing was amazing and went down well.
The only one that went down not so well (with me anyway, or didn’t get the whoops and involvement like the others) was the headliner, Kila Kela and his band – he came over like the Justin Timberlake of beatboxing (ooh cap! black vest! pecs! screaming girls who weren’t allowed to dance at the front! – QEH are a bit weird about that, although I’ve seen moshing there before now…) and after all the impressive beatboxing, especially Faith SFX, it came over as not as good or as innovative…they did some limp r ‘n’b numbers and MC Chips (yeah exactly) talked down to the audience after all that earlier demonstration and education in beatboxing, we don’t need another demonstration (“1 po-tata! 2 po-tata!” err okay) of what they are doing; or call outs to each of the ‘crew’ every 5 minutes (yeah we got the names first time); while they do staged posing and mime skits to the beatboxing across the stage. I didn’t get the ‘keeping it real’ street stance like the grime artists who were on earlier…
Don’t get me wrong, I think Kila Kela is talented as a beatboxer, but against the younger likes of Faith SFX or even Schlomo or the rapping skills of Foreign Beggars he needs a better crew or better songs to show off his talents – and yes even maybe a few better party tricks…?
Tempted to goto the Championships though after than this, it’s a good skill and really entertaining, especially with live singers and rappers along to it or creating whole tracks as Shlomo was. It’s a really cool creative artform, and it seems like people are trying to push things forward, yes even Kila Kela.
Leave a Comment! Be nice….