Photo credit: Novel Vintage

‘Make The Music’ is a new, special feature in The Hip Hop Museum Newsletter. We will periodically highlight the artists keeping the art of beatboxing alive in Hip Hop.

Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion in which a person mimics drum machines, beats, and other sounds using their mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. Names like Doug E. Fresh, Biz Markie, and Rahzel popularized the art form within Hip Hop, but others still carry the torch for beatboxing today.

Novel Vintage, a Japan-based beatboxing crew consisting of members Hirona, Ryoyo, Trip, and RyoTracks, is on a mission to preserve the art of beatboxing and the roots of Hip Hop culture within their homeland and globally.

We caught up with Novel Vintage to discuss how they became interested in beatboxing, the art form’s current place within Hip Hop, and what artists have embraced their talents.

Adam Aziz: How did you start beatboxing?

Hirona: I started beatboxing because of Rahzel and Afra, a beatboxing pioneer in Japan who brought the culture of beatboxing here.

Trip: I came across a website called Humanbeatbox.com. That’s where I found beatboxers like Rahzel and Scratch. I was like, wow, I was amazed at how crazy their skills were. After that, I started beatboxing.

Ryoyo: My brother showed me a video of an Australian beatboxing championship. There was this beatboxer called Joel Turner. He was the champion. I was shocked at how amazing that was. That was when I started to dig into the beatboxing art form through YouTube and other channels. After that, I got so into it that I wanted to beatbox myself and started DJ’ing.

RyoTracks: Back in middle school, I knew I wanted to make music and participate in the arts. I wanted to do something different, so I slowly began beatboxing.

AA: How did Novel Vintage come together?

Hirona: In 2003, a world tournament called ‘The Grand Beatbox Battle,’ the most prestigious battle, and we all came to compete. All the members of Novel Vintage loved black music and Hip Hop culture, and that’s why we got together and linked.

AA: I noticed on Instagram that the group has some amazing followers, from Gang Starr to Blu. Who were some of the first artists to show support for what you were doing?

Trip: Gang Starr was a huge influence on us. Their account reposted our content, and we were really happy about that. We all love Gang Starr’s music. We were happy to have the opportunity to be recognized for what we’re doing.

I brought that to our lessons, whether I was bringing in songs for them to listen to and analyze the lyrics, doing some graffiti art, you know, whatever it was. I just wanted to make sure that I was connecting with them and that they were able to share their experiences through that work.

Photo credit: Novel Vintage

AA: How do you select the songs you’re going to beatbox to?

RyoTracks: We all get together and bring our favorite Hip Hop songs for consideration, and we talk about them. But it’s always Ryoyo who has the longest tracklists for consideration. Most of the time, he decides on which tracks we will cover. But there are restrictions around what types of tracks you can cover from a beatboxing perspective. There are certain sounds we can’t do. We try to stick to tracks that people will recognize.

AA: Do you think beatboxing gets the respect it deserves within Hip Hop culture?

Ryoyo: Back in the days with Doug E. Fresh and Rahzel, it was respected. In the Hip Hop scene today, it is seen differently. Our purpose as Novel Vintage is to make sure we bring love and recognition to the art form, especially to the younger generations, not only in Japan but globally.

Hirona: The beatboxing scene in Japan and globally is highly influenced by Bass and EDM music. If you look at the beatbox battles right now, they are mostly bass and heavy sounds. But beatboxing is always Hip Hop, and we really want to push that message forward so that beatboxing can be respected again within Hip Hop.

AA: I really dug the beatboxing version of “Paid In Full” you guys did. What are some of your favorite tracks you’ve done?

RyoTracks: When we record, we listen to them over and over again because we love them all so much. It’s hard for us to pick just one.

AA: Tell me about the Hip Hop scene in Japan today. What’s it like?

Hirona: The scene is fire. It’s starting to get a lot more recognition compared to ten or twenty years ago. At the same time, it’s deteriorating in the preservation of Hip Hop culture. The scene is growing, but the core of Hip Hop culture is lessening within that scene.

The scene in the US and Japan is totally different.

RyoTracks: Because the scene is growing in Japan, we have to ensure that we preserve the roots of Hip Hop culture. We can’t let the blending of Rap with other genres bury the culture’s classic music.

Follow Novel Vintage on Instagram.

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