"It was surreal": BC radio host beatboxes with rapper Harry Mack in chance Berlin encounter
Musical magic happened in a chance encounter at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin when popular YouTube freestyle rapper Harry Mack ran into BC local Rohit Joseph.
You may recognize Joseph the audio producer with CBC All Points West in Victoria, but his audio skills go far beyond just radio production.
Joseph has been beatboxing for 13 years and was exploring the city with friends when they heard that there was a freestyler rapper in the area. Naturally, he went to find the rapper to lay down a beat, but he had no idea it was someone he had admired for a while.
When his friends told him who it was, he said, “You should have mentioned that, I would have come running.”
Once the musicians met, the pair put on an impressive show as Joseph laid down a rhythmic beat for Gate to start freestyling over.
It’s especially impressive when you realize that the whole moment was improvised.
“He just literally puts me on the spot. He’s like, ‘throw down a beat,’ and then that’s what you end up seeing on the video,” said Joseph.
Coming up with a beat in the spur of the moment isn’t a new thing for the beatboxer, though. He used to be a member of a band called Class ActĀ that put on “freestyle rap-type performances.”
“We were just going to open mics around Vancouver, around UBC because I was a UBC student at the time,” Joseph said. “Who would have thought that would have paid off?”
“I guess it kind of came full circle again in this encounter with Harry Mack, you know. All those random moments, beatboxing with friends, jamming with friends and preparing for local gigs in Vancouver.”
Despite having plenty of practice in unplanned beatboxing performances, Joseph still said he was “blown away” by the experience with Mack.
“It was surreal. Honestly, I got, like, chills after.”
The good experience didn’t stop at the Gate. Joseph said that after the video was released to YouTube with Mack tagging him in the description, fans flooded him with appreciative messages.
YouTube
“One of the best things about this is just the kindness of strangers,” said Joseph. “They didn’t have to find my Instagram, message me, directly post nice comments on my photo just saying like, ‘Hey, I saw you in the H Mac vid, I really loved your beatbox, and you killed it.'”
While Joseph loved the positive comments he received from the video, he also wants others to experience a similar thing. He’s starting a new music show called Vibin‘, where he hopes to shine more light on other local BC talent.
“I’m actually going to be starting a music show on CBC Radio in January of 2024, and the whole the whole premise of the show is really to uplift young BC talent,” he shared.
“I really hope to platform the incredibly talented musicians we have out there in BC.”