MUMBAI: Roposo, one of the country’s leading creator-led live entertainment commerce platform, brought beatboxing out to the mainstream by teaming up with Rawdust as the official live entertainment partner for The Battle of Beatboxers 2.0 (TBOB) - one of India’s biggest beatboxing battles.

Beatboxers, Gully Boy fame D-Cypher aka Gaurav Gambhir, and BeatRaw aka Roshan Gamare were the judges along with Dilip Sakhrani who was the first Indian to win an international beatboxing competition. TBOB was hosted by the song writer, Rap and RnB Artist Shaikhspeare aka Aamir Shaikh and Roposo creator Bhawna Munjal. The event witnessed exciting performances along with a special showcase by the judges.

Roposo streamed live during the event to millions of its users. The event was showcased on Glance, the lock screen platform with over 163 million users in India. Radioandmusic got in touch with Gully Boy fame beatboxer D-Cypher aka Gaurav Gambhir to know more about the contest and the future prospects of the winner from this championship.

Check the interview below:

What can we expect in India’s biggest beatboxing championship?

The Battle of Beatboxers 2.0 championship had an elimination round in which all participants who registered for the event had to upload a video on the Roposo app. From these, the top thirty-two contestants were selected and competed against each other on 19th February in Mumbai for the top two spots. It was bigger this time as Roposo was the official live entertainment partner for the event. Roposo and Glance exclusively live streamed the event to millions of its users, enabling these beatboxers to showcase their original talent to them. We had the best beatboxers in India from different parts of the country at the event. It was an amazing beatboxing competition with performances by other artists as well.

In the present scenario, we can see a lot of youngsters taking beatboxing as a career, so what are your suggestions for them?

Anyone who wants to take up beatboxing as a career in India will be making a conscious decision. Right now, the beatboxing scene in India is in a stage of growth. I can see it becoming big in the next three to four years. With this event, The Battle of Beatboxers 2.0, we took a step forward in that direction. This gets a further impetus when a creator-driven live entertainment commerce platform like Roposo provides beatboxers with a virtual stage to create live content and increase their fanbase.

Those who want to pursue beatboxing as a career in India must always be on the grind. It’s like any other freelance career. You just must keep at it by working on your art form and taking part in every competition you come across. A competition like The Battle of Beatboxers tests you and from there you could even take part in international competitions.

What do you think about the music scene in Mumbai?

The music scene in Mumbai is the best in comparison to other cities in India. There are many great venues here to perform and talented artists with who you can collaborate. Many of my artist friends from other cities are keen on visiting because you cannot get as many opportunities anywhere else.

I’ve been a part of the hip-hop community since 2012. I have attended gigs by musicians from other genres. If you want to come to Mumbai to pursue music, collaborate with other artists or simply attend a gig, you must.

How do you feel to be called to judge one of the biggest beatboxing championships?

It feels amazing. When Rawdust did the first edition of this event, we kept an open entry. There were no pre-rounds that took place like there is this time. There was just a normal venue which we booked.

It has been two years due to the pandemic and going by the response, it feels good to be part of the judging panel. This time we did it in a novel way by judging the initial round of participants via a digital medium like the Roposo app. It’s also tough being a judge because in the first round there were sixty-five participants, and it took us nearly five hours trying to select the top thirty-two beatboxers.

It was an amazing opportunity which I am truly grateful for. It was also difficult for me and the other two judges to select the winners of this competition as everyone was so talented. All in all, I am happy that a niche music category like beatboxing is getting immense exposure thanks to the efforts of Rawdust and Roposo.

Do you plan to mentor too apart from judging this battle?

There are a couple of people taking part who are in touch with me. There are also people who I met during the first edition of The Battle of Beatboxers as well. These are young kids between fourteen to eighteen years. I’m happy to see some of them qualify for this event.

When music communities get together, they share performance tips with each other. If someone comes up to me and asks me for advice, I’m happy to help.

What are the future prospects of the winner from this championship? Will they get to work with you?

The top four participants will receive a unique partnership opportunity with Roposo and will be a part of Roposo’s growing creator community. These selected beatboxers will get to be a part of various artist collaborations and live shows not only on Roposo, but on lock screen content platform Glance as well, enabling them to live stream at a massive scale. The contestant with the highest number of views on Roposo received various prizes and benefits from Rawdust. This would really help the budding beatboxers in their journey ahead. I am personally always up for collaborating with beatboxers with whom I am proud to share a community.