The UK Beatbox Championships (UKBC) are hosted every year in London, England. This historic annual all-day event, which brings together the country's top beatbox artists for gladiatorial knock-out of face to face beatbox battles, in five different categories solo, female, team, loopstation and under-18.
History
The UK Beatbox Championships are one of the major tournaments in British Hip Hop music scene, and has been held at various venues in its history that include the Scala at Kings Cross, O2 Academy Islington, the Garage, and the Grand Theatre, Clapham, London.[1][2] The first ever UK Beatbox Championship took place in 2005 in London, England, hosted by UK Beatbox Championships.[3]
Qualification for the UK Beatbox Championships consists of geographical heats held around Britain, which are contested from February through to June in London(South-east), Bristol (South-West) (Bristol heats), Nottingham (Midlands) and Liverpool (North).[4]
Beatboxing is the art of producing percussion, rhythm and musical sounds using only parts of the human body, namely the mouth, lips, tongue, vocal cords, nasal passage and throat.[4] The event attracts around 1000 spectators and is live streamed to around 90 countries globally.[1]
A panel of highly respected judges include former winners and international judges from the beatboxing fraternity.[4]
The judges listen for originality, musical composition, technique, clarity, complexity, timing, rhythm, flow, and performance. They look for witty response in battle, ingenuity, endurance and intelligence.[5]
Winners of the solo event include Faith FSX (2005), Beardyman (2006,2007), MC Zani (2008), Reeps One (2009,2010), Ball-Zee (2011, 2012, 2013), Contrix (2014, 2015), D-Low (2016) and Frosty (2017).[3]
A solo event for ladies was introduced in 2012 and won by Grace Savage (2012, 2013) and Bellatrix (2014) before being disbanded the 2016 event.[3]
A team event was introduced in 2012 and has been won by Illbits (2012, 2013, 2014), the all female group BURD (2015, 2016) and Kotcha (2017).[3]
Loopstation was introduced in 2013 and has been won by Hobbit (2013, 2014), Oxbox (2015), Bellatrix (2016) and Balance (2017).[3]
An Under 18 tournament was introduced in 2014 and has been won by D-low (2014), Redbeard (2015), Frosty (2016) and Epos (2017).[3]
The tournament was sponsored in the early years by Vauxhall,[4] since then the sponsor has been Relentless energy drink and Popbox.[3]
The winners of each title qualify for the Beatbox Battle World Championship in Berlin.[6]
UKBC Historical results 2005 to present
Solo |
Year |
Champion |
Runner-Up |
Semi-Finalist |
Semi-Finalist |
Video/Reference |
2005 |
Faith FSX |
Beardyman |
MC Zani |
Dr Badfunk |
[7] |
2006 |
Beardyman |
Pikey Esquire |
Foz |
Dr Rhythm |
[8] |
2007 |
Beardyman [9] |
MC Zani |
Bellatrix |
Talisman |
[10] |
2008 |
MC Zani |
Reeps One |
Lippicool |
ThePetebox |
[11] |
2009 |
Reeps One |
ThePetebox |
Layth |
Big Taj |
[12] |
2010 |
Reeps One |
Hobbit |
Layth |
Yasson |
[13] |
2011 |
Ball-Zee |
Reeps One |
Hobbit |
Beatfox |
[14] |
2012 |
Ball-Zee |
BeatFox |
Experimental |
Griff |
[15] |
2013 |
Ball-Zee |
Hobbit |
Minamus |
Raw Element |
[16] |
2014 |
Contrix |
Hobbit |
ABH |
Big Taj |
[17] |
2015 |
Contrix |
BeatFox |
Trey Qua |
Cull |
[18] |
2016 |
D-Low |
ABH |
Contrix |
Beatfox |
[19] |
2017 |
Frosty |
D-Low |
ABH |
Renegrade |
[20] |
Women |
Year |
Champion |
Runner-Up |
Semi-Finalist |
Semi-Finalist |
Video/Reference |
2012 Women |
Grace Savage |
Dana McKeon |
- |
- |
[15] |
2013 Women |
Grace Savage |
Dana McKeon |
MC Lycan |
Ness |
[16] |
2014 Women |
Bellatrix |
BeBox |
Dirty Gut Bucket |
J9 |
[17] |
2015 Women |
Event abolished |
- |
- |
- |
Teams |
Year |
Champion |
Runner-Up |
Semi-Finalist |
Semi-Finalist |
Video/Reference |
2012 Teams |
IllBits |
Minamus & Raw Element |
- |
- |
[15] |
2013 Teams |
IllBits |
Minamus & Crumpets |
TyTe & Bevis |
SoundByts & Feman |
[16] |
2014 Teams |
IllBits |
ABH & Contrix |
MicB & Subsonic |
Grace Savage & Bellatrix |
[17] |
2015 Teams |
BURD |
ABH & Contrix |
A-Cloud |
The Foosa |
[18] |
2016 Teams |
BURD |
A-Cloud |
Waveless |
ABH & Contrix |
[19] |
2017 Teams |
Kotcha |
A-Cloud |
Ultragrade |
BPM |
[20] |
Loopstation |
Year |
Champion |
Runner-Up |
Semi-Finalist |
Semi-Finalist |
Video/Reference |
2013 Loopstation |
Hobbit |
Mr Phormula |
- |
- |
|
2014 Loopstation |
Hobbit |
Oxbox |
RamZ |
Mr Phormula |
[17] |
2015 Loopstation |
Oxbox |
RamZ |
Frack |
Motormouf |
[18] |
2016 Loopstation |
Bellatrix |
Heavy Treble |
Oxbox |
Motormouf |
[19] |
2017 Loopstation |
Balance |
D-Low |
Frosty |
Bowl |
[20] |
Under 18 |
Year |
Champion |
Runner-Up |
Semi-Finalist |
Semi-Finalist |
Video/Reference |
2014 Under 18s |
D-Low [21] |
Redbeard |
Scorch |
FrostyFX |
[17] |
2015 Under 18s |
Redbeard |
Lewie G |
Epos |
Scorch |
[18] |
2016 Under 18s |
Frosty |
Epos |
Maish |
Droplet |
[19] |
2017 Under 18s |
Epos |
Maish |
Sonorous |
Crocs |
[20] |
References
- 1 2 "the-uk-beatbox-championships-get-involved". bimm.co.uk. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2017 UK Beatbox Championship". musiceducationuk.com. 2017. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "UK Beatbox Championship home". ukbeatboxchampionships.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 "Vauxhall UK Beatbox Championship 2012". vauxhall.co.uk. 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- ↑ "UKBC Judging Criteria". ukbeatboxchampionships.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2015-05-29 Beatbox Battle World Championship". astra-berlin.de. 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2005 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2006 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "The beat goes on". independent.co.uk. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2007 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2008 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2009 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2010 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "2011 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 "2012 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 "2013 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "2014 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 "2015 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 "2016 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 "2017 UKBC Results". ukbc.com. 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ↑ "Dan is unbeatable in national contest". Swindon Advertiser. 2014. Retrieved January 19, 2018.