Bed-Stuy beatboxers win international a cappella competition

A beat boxing group from Brooklyn took home the grand prize at an a cappella competition this past weekend.
Despite what you may think, the duo says beat boxing is an art form.

“A lot of people think that beat boxing is like a little party trick, it's like a cool little talent that you do for your friends or like back up rappers, but I see it as a whole new wave of music,” says Gene Shinozaki, of the group Spiderhorse.

The group says it is a style of music that many underestimate.

“I don't even look at it as just beat boxing, were just making music with our bodies, which is people have been doing that forever,” says Shinozaki.

Shinozaki and Chris Celiz make up Spiderhorse. The group became the smallest a cappella group to win the Aca Open this past weekend, complete with a trophy and $25,000 check.

“It was just an experiment. We wanted to see how people were going to receive the music,” says Celiz.

It was a feat they didn't even expect.

“Beat boxing is on the rise and we've infiltrated the a cappella world,” says Celiz.
They say despite many critics doubting them, they continued to practice hard to become champions.

“When we're training for this specific championship, we would run while running our set in order to make sure like we could mentally putting ourselves under this pressure and then physically we're going to be breathing hard,” says Celiz.

Spiderhorse plans to continue making music in hopes of one day bringing their beats to the mainstream.