Overview
"LEARNING to beatbox is like learning to cook from your mother. At least, that is what beatboxer/modern dance accompanist Dominic “Shodekeh†Talifero would like you to believe.
“You don’t study under a master beatboxer if you want to learn to beatbox,†Shodekeh says. “The culture isn’t like that. You learn from hanging out with your friends and being around [beatboxing].â€
Shodekeh describes the vocal form as being raw, organic and born out of necessity. In many cases, including his own, he says, beatboxers begin experimenting vocally because they cannot afford a drum set.
But why turn to beatboxing? Why not try banging on a trash can?
“I had always been good at impressions, voices and emulations,†Shodekeh says. “I guess I got started out making machine-gun noises, playing with my Transformers as a kid.â€
As he grew up, Shodekeh was indirectly influenced by Doug E. Fresh and by Darren Robertson, a.k.a. Buffy the Human Beatbox. In high school Shodekeh listened to Scratch from the Roots and developed an interest in mimicking the turntable with his own vocal percussion.
It was not until his Fall 1997 college education at Penn State’s Beaver Campus (Monaca, PA) that Shodekeh became a big practitioner of beatboxing. If you want to learn to beatbox, however, just hang out in hip hop’s kitchen." - Alyssa Schoeneman, "The 217" @ The University of Illinois, 2009.
All Media & Content In This Project Credited & Used With Permission.
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