At the Busch Beatbox Battle a reminder that everything is local

Winchester, Virginia — Standing to the side of the Busch Beatbox Battle, TylaDubya smiled, thinking about how far beatboxing in Virginia had come. “I still manage a Facebook group called Virginia Beatbox,” he said. “There are only like three members.” In defense of Virginia’s best-ever beatboxer, there are thirteen members in the Facebook group, but the second annual Busch Beatbox Battle was a far bigger event than a Virginia beatboxer ever could have hoped for. 

Over the course of the two-day battle and festival, a dozen Grand Beatbox Battle performers from six different countries graced the stage of the Bright Box Theater, the same stage on which another dozen Virginia beatboxers performed elimination showcases. Though none of the Virginia beatboxers advanced to the battles, the local-heavy crowd and performers list was a reminder for the beatbox community that the local is also very important. 

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The vast majority of American beatbox battles are in New York City, which makes it hard for beatboxers outside the northeast to meet up with other beatboxers. And, in a way, the Busch Beatbox Battle is a temporary extension of that ecosystem. The Busch Battle is a collaboration between Napom and BenT beatbox, a beatboxer and fan from Virginia, to bring the Beatbox House parties from New York to the mid-atlantic. [Author’s note: the Beatbox House parties have traveled before, and I wrote about Beatbox House parties abroad for the New York Times. Now is a great time to check that out if you haven’t already ;)] 

BenT, who is an alcohol rep in his day job, discovered beatbox through reaction videos on YouTube, and developed a relationship with Napom, who was relatively close in Pittsburgh. BenT knew many of the music venues in Winchester from his day job, and suggested to Napom that he and the Beatbox House host a party in Winchester. The Busch Beatbox Battle launched last summer, and a number of Virginians in the crowd were proud to tell me that no, this wasn’t their first beatbox battle. They had attended the Busch Beatbox Battle last year too. 

This year Bizkit rampaged the battles, defeating Stitch from Malaysia, in the finals, the second time Bizkit has beaten Stitch in battle this year. A longtime veteran of Beatbox House party battles, Bizkit adds the Busch Beatbox Battle title to the growing list of Beatbox House battles he’s won. “It’s definitely more than six but not more than ten,” he said.

And while Bizkit and Stitch were the headline battlers, newcomer Riku was the breakout star. Patterns of spit snares, dry kicks, and a number of other techniques that came so fast it was hard to identify them all made up a shocking and exciting elimination round. Towards the end he paused the routine to ask the crowd and his fellow competitors “can you follow?” The judges loved the energy and ranked Riku 7th of 36, enough to advance to the top-eight battles.

Riku’s first battle against second-ranked Shield would prove to be the battle of the night. The rock-paper-scissors game to see which beatboxer would go first went six rounds before Shield won with scissors, and the crowd reveled in the tension, cheering after each tie. The battle was a clash of styles, with Riku continuing his hardcore style and Shield performing musical rounds with top-40 style pop structure. In a split 3-2 decision, the judges advanced Riku to the semifinals, opting for his razor sharp percussion over Shield’s singing.

Riku would go on to place third in the battle, his first ever podium finish at a battle. In the face of a strong accusation of repetition from Jaylip, his opponent in the small final — “you can be as loud as you want but it doesn’t mean your beats aren’t getting stale” — Riku stayed true to his style, explaining after the battle that his camper-off-his-meds energy is just what he does. “I always go that hard.” 

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Riku, Stitch, and Bizkit went home with handmade trophies, wooden plaques that BenT’s wife Tawnia created just for the battle. But the impact of the Busch Beatbox Battle won’t be measured by the trophy’s placement in Bizkit’s future livestreams, or the views that the battle gets on Youtube. 

Speaking to me in 2018 for the original SpeshFX, TylaDubya told me that he learned of beatboxing from a classmate, but he would only see other beatbox lovers “once or twice a year,” and that would happen outside Virginia. For Virginia’s beatboxing community in 2023, that is no longer the case. At least once a year, the American beatboxing world centers on Virginia.

Assorted Notes:

At many battles, the question of which performer goes first is left to a coinflip. At others, the higher-ranked performer gets to choose. But at the Beatbox House parties, rock-paper-scissors (RPS) is preferred. At the Busch Battle, hosts Chris Celiz and Kenny Urban masterfully used the children’s game to build tension for the battle, dropping a beat that built up to the RPS reveal. 

For the sake of journalism and integrity, I tracked the RPS matchups across the eight battles, and I have the data here for you. Enjoy.

• Half the battles required more than one attempt at RPS, and, as I said before, that only added to the tension.
• Riku vs Shield, the RPS of the night and the battle of the night had six rounds. They went as follows:

If I missed anything hit me up on Instagram, I’m @HateItOrLevitt or @SpeshFX. I’ll be back with other event roundups and the event calendar soon.