He's the Band
Beatboxer Yuri Lane blends harmonica, blues and hip-hip into an infectious and thoroughly original sound.
By Suemehda Sood
Lights go up onstage at the Steppenwolf Theatre, revealing one man. The bass drum lays down the initial beat. The snare adds a layer of back beats. A boom, chick, boom-boom, chick, punctuated by an explosive blow to the crash cymbal. It’s an orgy of percussion, all coming from a single mouth.
Yuri Lane’s face is animated as he rattles air in and out of his mouth. His checks inflate and deflate. His lips pucker, purse and ripple. His head moves up and down to the sound of his own beat. He leans forward and sticks his left hand out as if he’s bracing himself to start breakdancing. He remains upright, though, as his feet sync up to the music in coordinated dance moves. Although his feet may be crip-walking, it’s hard for audiences to take their eyes off his mouth. His right hand reaches for his pocket. He pulls out a harmonica and raises the instrument to his lips. The sound of a drum machine spitting beats through the holes of the harmonica as the one-man oral percussion section finds its melody.
In a cross-generational, genre-blending art form, Yuri Lane combines impressive beatboxing skills with versatile harmonica playing to produce a sound unlike any other. Dropping old school beats all over Chicago, Lane’s got the hip-hop blues, and he’s got it bad.
A 5-foot 7-inch white guy with blue eyes and a receding hairline, Lane does not look like hip-hop. The moment he opens his mouth, though, preconceived notions quickly evaporate. “White boy’s got rhythm!” is the response Lane frequently receives when he performs in hip-hop clubs across the country.
Sitting across from me at a coffee shop in Wicker Park, Lane’s eyes get wide and his hands wave around expressively as he tells me stories about his music. His right arm sports a white wristband. On his right hand, he wears a ring adorned with a big silver boombox. As he talks, every now and then he’ll spit out a couple of percussive beatbox sounds between words, as if they’re bottled up inside just waiting to break out. “Beatbox is a part of my daily life,” he says. “I beatbox when I’m walking down the street, when I’m doing the dishes. And sometimes my wife is like, ‘Shut up with the beat box! Let’s have a normal conversation. Speak. With grammar and subject.’”
Beatboxing is the art of vocal percussion—the creation of beats and rhythms using the human mouth. It involves the simulation of drum machine sounds, sometimes accompanied by vocal imitation of other musical instruments and turntables.
Popularized by such musicians as Darren “Buffy” Robinson, Doug E. Fresh, and Biz Markie, beatboxing became an integral element of hip-hop in the 1980s. In 2000, Rahzel (formerly of the hip-hop group The Roots) brought beatboxing to the mainstream with his cover of Alliyah’s “If Your Mother Only Knew.”
