SHAWN Lee doesn’t need instruments to make music that gets people dancing. All the 17-year-old Media Technology student needs is his mouth, for Shawn is a beatboxer and a darn good one, too.

Shawn represented Malaysia at the Beatbox Battle World Championship in Germany last month, and came in ninth out of 45 contestants.

“I love beatbox. It’s the simplest way to make music to pump up your adrenaline and get you moving, without actually having to play any musical instruments,” says Shawn.

Beatboxing is a type of vocal percussion and beatboxers usually produce drum beats, sounds of horns and strings and other musical instruments using their mouth, lips, tongue and voice.

It’s a form of music often associated with hip-hop, but is not contained to that genre alone. Pop singers like Justin Timberlake and Blake Lewis beatbox in some of their songs.

Shawn Lee, 17, has been beatboxing for almost four years now.

Even the late Michael Jackson incorporated vocal sounds in songs like Billie Jean and Remember The Time. Yup, beatboxing is that old – if not older – and it is fast becoming a popular performing style of choice among youngsters here.

Shawn was introduced to beatboxing four years ago, though he recalls making sounds using his mouth way before he knew what he was doing.

“I made ‘nonsense’ sounds with my mouth and it used to drive people nuts. I came across beatboxing on the Internet, and only then did I realise that the music I’ve been making all along has a proper term and is actually famous,” he says.

He became very interested in beatboxing and couldn’t get enough of it. Shawn spent a lot of time watching videos on the Internet and learning new techniques and sounds from other beatboxers who posted their video online.

“You can find so many videos on beatboxing on the Net. It’s everywhere and the best part is that they’re so simple that you can start making the sounds yourself with just some practice,” he adds.

Shawn practises everywhere and anytime. It is the best thing about beatboxing, he says. “It’s an instrument that you can carry around anywhere.”

You can hear sounds from Shawn as he walks around in a shopping mall or while crossing the street. His understanding parents put up with their son’s constant need to create sound.

“They’re very supportive and don’t mind me making the ‘funny’ sounds. They let me experiment with the music and don’t stop me from entering competitions or performing at gigs.”

Shawn participated in the Malaysian Beatbox competition held in conjuction with the Indie Youth Fest roadshow recently. His performance won him one of the four slots in the grand finale at the Indie Youth Fest in October.

The beatboxers also utilized the mini studio rooms at Studio V, during the Indie Youth Fest 2009.

Another finalist is 18-year-old Ahmad Syajaril Mohd Radzi, better known as Shazet, who wowed the crowd and the judges with his awesome techniques. He managed to make four sounds of different beats during his routine – and that is not something easy to do. It requires a lot of practice, something Shazet doesn’t shy away from.

“I’ve only been beatboxing for two years and got to know about it from my friends,” he says. Though relatively new in the field, Shazet has proven that he indeed is a force to reckon with. He won The Australian’s Melbourne Beatbox Championship earlier this year.

“I was the only Malaysian who participated in that competition, the rest were Australians. I just went there and did my thing. I wanted to show them that Malaysia too has good beatboxers like they do,” says Shazet.

Even though the beatboxing community is still considered small here, Shazet believes that the number of followers and beatboxers is growing by the day.

“You just have to come and look at the kind of attention we get from the youngsters. They find beatboxing intriguing. Though some don’t do it, they come out to show their support anyway,” he says.

Some may think that beatboxing is dominated by the boys, but girls like Kimberly Sng are dying to break the stereotype.

“It’s not weird for girls to beatbox, you know,” says Kimberly, 19. The Accounting student has been beatboxing for over a year, and was the only female contestant at the Malaysian Beatbox competition. She managed to beat some of the male competitors and got through to the quarter finals.

“I know that some guys don’t take me seriously, but that’s only because they’ve never heard me beatbox before,” she says. But no matter what others may think of her beatboxing ways, Kimberly knows that her parents will always be her number one fans. They’ve been supportive of her decision to participate in beatboxing competition and even came out to support their daughter that day.

“My parents always encourage me to do better in beatboxing. They don’t find it awkward that their daughter is into something not many girls like,” she adds.

Kimberly sincerely hopes that more girls would come out and give beatboxing a chance. “They think that it’s disgusting that one has to spit into the mic, but beatboxing is more than just that. It gives you freedom to make music the way you want to. Seriously. I really do hope to see more female beatboxers in the future,” she says.