#beatbox

To summarize the video, 

He explained how he was given the choice between using Swissbeatbox’s (the organization behind GBB) judging criteria or his own personal one

He went into his personal criteria and how it’s centered on musicality - “technicality ultimately exists beneath musicality” and that art must convey emotions, thoughts, or ideas to their audience

He went into examples of this in music and how he thinks they express musicality

Hans Zimmer’s “First Step” from Interstellar and how it expresses the vastness of space

The Weeknd’s “The Hills” + a remix of “The Hills”

He established the point that there are certain kinds of music that are pure showcases of technicality and he will still judge them as such- which was foreshadowing for Footboxg

He noted that he felt safer to showcase his unique judging perspective since SBX took the mean of the median 3 judge scores for the final ranking

He made judgments based on how a track would be received if it were on a big stage like Coachella or something - but also how might it be received by great musicians- his examples were Beethoven, Hans Zimmer, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Michael Jackson, and Queen

He judged more strictly when something went against his personal values

He then jumped into reacting to/analyzing the wildcard winners and then why he placed them where he did

Not gonna go too deep into each analysis of the wildcards but I want to say I feel vindicated in his H-Has analysis where he talked about pitching and melodic techniques falling under technicality. I’ve had this same opinion for quite a while now, and to be honest, his framework of technicality folded into musicality is a fascinating way of viewing it. Generally most of his comments for each wildcard are objective observations with his own subjective comments (for example, he’ll say “this was not pleasant to my ears”). Now, to actually get to your question, his judging approach is a mix of a new maverick approach and something that’s kinda already existed but is only now being articulated. It is the product of something that’s been discussed and debated about in the beatboxing scene for a long time now, specifically the relationship between musicality and technicality in beatboxing. If you want a refresher on these two concepts, this essay and this essay both talk about them. Historically, I’ve seen a lot of people use musicality as an empty word to describe any beatboxing with a melody, but this fails to capture phenomena such as there being various kinds of melodic styles, the existence of melodic techniques that I mentioned above, and song structure in absence of melody. As the scene has advanced, however, I see more people including the idea of intentionality within musicality- with intentionality being taking an idea and expressing it with your beatboxing. 

Intentionality also sums up Wing’s judging approach. He literally defines musicality as the ability to convey emotions, thoughts, or ideas. To support this, his main criticisms of the wildcard winners were where he either disagreed with the idea/intention of a piece, or saw a lack of intention (when a choice was made arbitrarily). Notably, he was particularly harsh on G-Wizz and ABX for these reasons. The reason that this is also a maverick/new approach is that nobody’s judged so boldly (or at least so publicly) in favor of intentionality, especially not for such a high level event as GBB wildcards (which is lowkey also somewhat opaque in its judging process, so there’s no way to know if it’s been done before).

I do actually have a lot of thoughts about this approach. Intentionality is one thing that I think is really good for the beatbox scene- and I would say it’s an underrated skill for beginner/intermediate beatboxers to have. I’ve seen many a Jam 1 (the main group jam for the Beatbox Community Discord server) where people spam whatever sounds are popular or sometimes even just copy famous beatboxers with no real direction or idea of what they want to do. On the flip side, I’ve seen several people with limited soundkits and techniques go very far in competitions because of their use of intentionality. There are also many people who are technically gifted who once lacked intentionality that suddenly skyrocket in success the moment they start to express it. I really respect Wing for believing in it so strongly to the point of imposing that vision onto the vetting process for the most venerated and prestigious battle in beatboxing. I genuinely think that Wing sees intentionality and beatboxing as songs/music to present to the world as the future of the scene.

The thing is, that vision of his is actually something I have a problem with. Let me explain. Beatboxing has its roots in hip-hop. The origins of the artform as it looks like today is from rappers freestyling on top of beatboxing, which quickly changed into beatboxers themselves freestyling with/against each other. This speaks to another aspect of beatboxing that I would argue is extremely important- spontaneity. Honestly, I might do a whole separate essay on the relationship between spontaneity and intentionality, because there’s a lot to the strengths and weaknesses of each that could be talked about. However, I want to highlight that beatboxing as an artform is of live performance- even if it’s cool to watch recordings, at one point it had to have been performed live from the mouth of a human being. Part of being a live performer is being able to capture the moment, and this is doubly important in a battle context where you have to both share with and capture the moment from your opponent. Wing himself actually won one of the most impactful battles in recent history by doing exactly this. In the battle, his opponent Blackroll declared that “I control all the room”. Wing countered with his famous song Dopamine, and simply said “control” as if to say “here’s what real crowd control looks like”. All that to say, spontaneity is a core part of beatboxing that should not be removed.

Dopamine went viral at the end of 2024, and Wing has since become a celebrity in Korea. He’s been on national television, opened for K-pop megastar G-Dragon, and is now preparing to release a new (presumably beatbox only) album to the world. Now, if you’ve watched Wing’s appearances on Korean television, talk shows, etc, you’ve probably seen him perform Dopamine or perhaps Sailor (with fellow beatboxer Hiss). In each one of these performances, they’re done in almost the exact same way. There’s no excitement of something new, there’s no moment to capture, it’s a preplanned and prepared song to be played over and over again to hopefully reach newer and newer audiences. I do want to point out that this is actually very technically impressive, because it takes a certain amount of practice and talent to be able to replicate a performance to the smallest detail with no mistakes. That being said, having a solidified single version of a song to be done the same over and over means that any changes aren’t opportunities, but mistakes. Even when he did Dopamine in GBB25 against Blackroll, he actually switches keys by accident at 4:33 in the video (if you check his breakout performance of it a year earlier, he’s actually supposed to do his liproll bass an octave or two below the note he opens the song with, which is an F). This is to the point where even he got sick of doing the same performance over and over again. In his judge showcase for the Korean Beatbox Championship last year, he faked out the audience by beginning Dopamine and then stopped, saying “I’ve decided that I’m not going to do Dopamine today. Do you know how many times over the last half a year I’ve had to do it?” 

Wing’s in the K-pop world now, and while I’m admittedly biased against K-pop and pop music in general, I do think there are genuine criticisms of it that are true. I think the criticism that pop and K-pop can feel manufactured to be as inoffensive as possible does hold some weight. You can see it when he notes something is unpleasant to his ear, or when he says that he considers how each wildcard might be received at Coachella or by great musicians (that are still outsiders to the scene). You can see it in the implication that he wants something less spontaneous and more refined to present to the world, the implication that he’s ashamed of showing off G-Wizz or ABX. If I remember correctly, Wing has said he aspires to win a Grammy for beatboxing, and one can see how G-Wizz and ABX don’t necessarily fit into the category of Grammy winning music. I think Wing’s expectations and vision for beatboxing is coming from that K-pop world, where it’s overly formalized, perfectionist, and lacks room for human error (and the innovation resulting from it). And when there’s no room for human error, there’s no room for human beatboxing. I think if the scene moves towards this vision with no room for its underground hip-hop roots, it could destroy the foundation it’s been built on.

I am being overly harsh and kind of dramatic about potential consequences. In reality, formalizing beatboxing would see more opportunities for people like me and the people around me, giving both valuable experience and also real money. For one, I’m someone who does genuinely believe that work (including creating art) deserves proper compensation. Another thing is it might paradoxically make it easier and harder to start beatboxing, as there will be more resources for beginners but it will stymie people who try to approach beatboxing from a non formalized angle. By shrinking what sounds and techniques are considered palatable and usable, the artform will see people striving less to be themselves and more to be some palatable ideal beatboxer. It will move the scene towards amazing art in the form of concerts and music videos, but also away from battles, freestyling, and jamming. It’s a mixed bag, and despite my gripes there is real, powerful good that it can bring to the scene. I should also point out the fact that Wing cannot directly control every event and every beatboxer around the globe, so multiple visions of beatboxing can exist at the same time.

I want to note that a lot of my arguments here originate directly from some other beatboxers and/or are inspired by personal conversations I’ve had with them. I’m going to keep our conversation private, but Ghost has publicly said that he mostly agreed with Wing’s analysis while slightly disagreeing about ABX and Marvelous (I personally would throw in G-Wizz in there too, I liked his alien theme). Sonus, the beatboxer who translated the video to English for Wing, has also publicly stated that “I personally disagree with a lot of what Wing said in the video as much as I agree with his perspective on musicality”, and “There's gotta be beatboxers that go full ‘weird / outside the box’ for the progress of the artform in general in my opinion”. Some other beatboxers I spoke with have hinted at having similar opinions. Despite the dissenting voices, these are just opinions, and there’s no hate for Wing from anyone of us. Sonus himself has said he did the translation because Wing is his friend rather than some kind of coworker.

You just got a lot of criticism from me, but I have nothing but respect for Wing. His ambition and vision for beatboxing is something that I can at least sympathize with if not empathize with. His video on this has actually made me respect and appreciate him and the role he plays in the scene even more. On a more personal note, he has inspired and influenced me in my own beatboxing journey quite a lot, and I’ve been a fan since I discovered his GBB 2018 wildcard at the end of 2017 (I’ve been yelling about him being robbed 8 years before GBB 25, ha!). Please go support him and listen to his new album Dopamine when it comes out before the end of the month (yes, the album is named after the song).