18-year-old Bengaluru boy aims for Limca record with 24-hour beatboxing marathon
Bengaluru: Ask Riyaz Ur Rehman, the 18-year-old, highly driven beatboxer about Bob Dylan and he says, “Bob what now?” Riyaz is a product of the EDM and dubstep generation – that’s his music and it led him to beatboxing when he was only 14. On June 9, Riyaz will attempt to the Limca Record for longest beatbox marathon, with a 24-hour target! “The record doesn’t exist in the Limca Book, so if I do six hours at a stretch, I will be the official record holder,” he said. However, this young man is already dreaming of Guinness – the current Guinness record stands at 25 hours.
Riyaz has been beatboxing for four years now and it began almost by chance, when he happened to watch a YouTube video by Chinese beatboxer Daichi. “When I started out, there weren’t too many people doing it,” he said. “I started out with dubstep, which is an advanced beatboxing genre in itself, but I found I could do it almost at once.” By 16, Riyaz was performing in public.
“I have been practicing for the record for nearly a year now,” said Riyaz, who quite literally, never, ever stops beatboxing. “I do it all the time, when I’m at home, at college and even during class. My friends are sick of me,” he laughed. “When I first performed at Presidency College, where I study, the response was amazing. I like to dance and to model as well, but beatboxing really gets a lot of attention.”
Riyaz will attempt the record at Rejoyz Auditorium in Malleswaram. The event has been organised by Musical Journey, an event management company that signed him. “According to the rules, I need to submit a video recording of the entire performance,” he said.
In December last year, a big break came his way. “I performed the opening act at Sunidhi Chauhan’s concert in December,” said Riyaz. Not long after that, he decided to expand on his skills. “One beatboxer named Sudhir can beatbox with the flute, so I decided to try and work with the guitar,” he said. “I also beatbox with the harmonica.” Riyaz is currently the only guitar beatboxer in the country.
One of the biggest challenges of breaking the marathon beatboxing record is making a mistake! “If I stop and start again, it will count as a pause and I will have to reapply for the record,” he said. Ensuring that he doesn’t stumble when he makes a mistake is crucial. “I have already learned to incorporate coughs and sneezes into the rhythm,” he said.
Although the beatboxing scene in India is still in its fledgling stages, Riyaz, whose stage name is ‘Rimen, the Human Sound Woofer’, says he has no intention of running away to a foreign country. “I want to establish a platform for beatboxers here,” he said. “Bengaluru has a thriving scene for beatboxers and there are people like Vineet Vincent who have even started incorporating south India percussion sounds into their act,” he said. Riyaz himself can mimic up to 30 instruments, including a number of percussion sounds, helicopters, police sirens, the trumpet and even drops of water.
20 hours is the longest he has ever managed to beatbox without a stop. “It was a college trip and I spent the entire journey beatboxing without a break,” Riyaz recalled. “If I can pull off 24 hours for the Limca Book, I want to attempt Guinness as soon as I possibly can!”
