Dispatch from the Canadian Beatbox Championships

Your favorite beatboxer loves battles. The build up. The fancy sound system. The roar of the crowd. The drive that comes from standing opposite an equal. But if you ask them privately, they might just say that the best part of a battle is a quiet meal with two or three old friends.

Those sublime moments where beatboxers get to enjoy each others’ company are hard to touch as a journalist. I’m the only reporter covering the beatbox world, artists and organizers are both excited and wary of my presence, so I’m not always welcome in those circles. Besides, the whole point of having a quiet moment with pals is that it’s a quiet moment with pals. It’s hard to have that and be on the record at the same time.

For example, at the 2021 GBB, I joined a table of four world-class loopers to introduce myself. No recorder, no interview request. I wanted to know what loopers talk about when they hang, simply so I could know. Instead, I learned that there are four loopers who would rather end a conversation than hang with a journalist they just met. *Shrugs*

Still, from time to time, I’m welcomed into these spaces. This leads to fun moments like at the 2018 American Beatbox Championship, when I discovered I could do the Tennis Ball Pop sound and Audical (now Vocodah) could not. 

At last month’s Canadian Beatbox Champs, I found myself in one of those spaces. 

Outside Toronto’s Redwood Theatre I stepped out of the official Canadian Champs pre-party to catch some fresh air. Slick black, iced over with layers of melted and re-frozen snow from the week prior—“If we were doing this last week,” host Philly D would say later, “we would have been fucked”—the old-town sidewalk played host to a meeting of old heads and their cigarettes. We were wearing flannels and hoodies, and you could tell the Canadians from us Yankees by who kvetched about leaving their coat inside.

The 2023 Canadian Champs were the first since before the pandemic, and there was a sense in the sidewalk huddle that just making it to the event was a victory. Between drags of cigarettes and pulls from vapes, the old heads patted each others’ backs for making it to 2023 and reminisced over battles, social media platforms, and beatboxers past. 

The entire Canadian Championships were awesome. The main battles were held within sight of Lake Ontario and underneath the CN Tower, the sound was great, and, both days, the event was open to people of all ages. I was struck, though, by Breaks and Beats, the Canadian Championships pre-party. 

As I have written in the past, fans usually rely on post-event vlogs and ten-second Instagram stories for a peek into the quiet social moments that happen alongside a beatbox battle. At the pre-party in Canada, this was all available. The quiet moment I happened upon on the sidewalk was one of many. And it was all open to the public.

Inside the warm theater, sheltered from the icy street, brisk wind, and falling snow, the event started slowly. A gray freckled dog sat in a bed just inside the doorway, barely looking up as the beatboxers trickled in. MC Scott Jackson took the mic more than once, feinting towards the beginning of the program, only to welcome the crowd and encourage them to buy drinks and tip their bartenders. A toddler, who arrived at the event precisely on time with his parents, followed Jackson’s advice, buying a soda with his father, who, one can only hope, bought something harder.

As a DJ (digitally) played hip hop songs that only the old heads would recognize, beatboxers who hadn’t seen each other in person in some time gleefully reconnected. “Duuuuuude,” said a Canadian vice-champion, greeting an American who came from two time zones over, before wrapping him in a big hug. Another Canadian/American pair hopped up and down while holding each other, getting out their excitement before they could say “good to see you” and share a normal hug. 

The program began with an open mic, which the newest and oldest comers took advantage of. Beatboxers who came to the scene during the online-only pandemic times anxiously took the mic, performing complex patterns while navigating mic technique for the first time. Older beatboxers who long ago left the battle scene also took the mic to praise the community and try out ancient routines. 

“This is my first time hearing beatbox,” the bartender told me, with a crooked look of perplexed amusement on her face. 

Beatboxers from Long Island, Alberta, Toronto, Ukraine (!!), and Quebec tried out routines as the bigger names filtered into the space. Snow and wind across North America added hours to drives from Chicago and New York, and one beatboxer who was driving from Philadelphia got stranded in the snow. Those beatboxers who made it were greeted with shots, hugs, and waves of friends emptying the performance space to hug them and crowd the entryway.

The main event was a schoolyard-style 8v8 battle. After a draft filled with oohs and ahhs, sixteen beatboxers stood onstage, split down the middle and fronted by their captains. During the draft, captains BBK and Elisii were free to call up anybody from the crowd, but many selections demurred. “I’m not trying to get whooped by one of these young guns,” said an old head who declined to be drafted. 

After the draft, the decorum broke down, and quickly. After much murmuring and comfortable argument, the group of sixteen descended from the stage, choosing to embrace the schoolyard-style battle and duke it out among the crowd. The judging panel and a few spectators quickly took their spot, sitting on the stage, legs dangling.

The sound became an issue. 

It’s overcompressed. They cut the bass. The left mic has more reverb. Every beatboxer had an opinion on the sound. The fact that world-champion Gene Shinozaki was entrusted with the mic-check was no reason to quit prognosticating. (The sound checker, who was in Canada strictly to “drink and enjoy the beatboxing” was completely unphased by the commentary from the peanut gallery.)

As the battle commenced, the performers looked for ways to deal with the imperfect sound. One beatboxer even considered battling without the mic, using the shock of an acapella performance to his advantage. (After a lot of swaggerful talking, he used the mic.) But in the end, they all had a good battle, one that hinted at the future, and lived up to the billing of a cool new style.

Big Squid, whose only notable battle experience is in the online Grand Beatbox Battle in 2020, stunned the crowd with a bumpy synth-based routine, hinting at his top-ranked elimination round and top-4 finish the next day; Big Dave and JordoX faced off … only to see each other again in the main battle the next day; in the captains round, BBK and Elisii acted as Canadian Champions should, full of swagger, anchoring a strong night of performances.

Team Elisii won, but not that many cared. The announcement was received with more hugs between competitors than fanfare, and people filtered out. At its peak, the crowd numbered about 150, but by the end, it was just fifty. I got an uber home before I had to compete with the other forty-nine people.

Back in January I asked if the family vibes of the beatbox world could sustain it through scandal and mismanagement:

“Is it pollyannaish to think that family and love will be beatboxing’s golden ticket? Who’s to say. But that is the bet beatboxing is making.”

I’m not sold, but the opening night of the Canadian Champs was a reminder that there is a lot for the beatbox community to be proud of. They have endured platforms dying, scandal, and barely any financial investment in their art. This glimpse into the best of what the community has to offer is an insight worth noting in its own right, and, for me, as a critic, I think it is a strong reminder that my skepticism of the beatbox community’s ability to endure, while warranted, should be tempered.

Congratulations to Vino, The Wookies, and Rime for their championships, to Philly D and Scott Jackson for shepherding Canadian beatbox into its second decade and the post-covid era, and to everybody who had a good time at the Canadian Champs, competitor, fan, or otherwise. A weekend of fun and music is worth celebrating.

A thought on endless wildcard season…

Yesterday, Madtwinz announced the wildcard winners for their beatland battle. Yet another “brand new” event that, when it comes down to it, is a Swissbeatbox/Grand Beatbox Battle subsidiary. (Hi Tezarekt!)

I’m excited to see how the event plays out, especially the finals in Bali. But I can’t help but notice that there are so many familiar names among the winners. It was great to see new competitive material from Inkie, but Tako has published four wildcards in the past five months; Matej, three; Vino, four; Osis, three. You get the point.

At some point, these artists will need to ask themselves if making endless wildcards is beneficial. Sure, Beatland has a significant prize for the winner, but nearly all the beatboxers who enter and/or win wildcards will walk away with nothing, other than another wildcard season dedicated to non-marketable material.

In Inkie’s return to wildcards, I see a model. One that has been followed to success by Alem, The Beatbox House members, the Berywam guys, and others. Pick your spots to compete. For every small wildcard win, top-8 finish, you could develop three songs on an album, or workshop a concert series. The more artists are thinking about wildcards, the less they are thinking about their presentation to the non-initiated.

If, as Inkie decided with Beatland, an event is particularly exciting to you, then by all means go for it. But if not, I’d rather hear an album of non-competitive material than three incoherent wildcards.

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Upcoming Calendar: Events

• Circlejam Beatbox Festival: Klagenfurt, Austria. June 9-10.
• Vokal.Total 20th Anniversary Edition. Graz, Austria. July 18-22.
• Beatbox Battle World Championship: Berlin, Germany. August 2-6.
• Beatland in-person final: Bali, Indonesia. August 25.
• Grand Beatbox Battle: Tokyo, Japan. October 18-21.

Upcoming Calendar: Wild Cards

• Spanish Beatbox Open (there are a lot of details, check them out on IG for all the info.)

If I missed any upcoming events or Wild Cards, hit me up on Instagram, I’m @HateItOrLevitt or @SpeshFX.