Story, photos and video
by ANDRIAN TAM
brats@thestar.com.my

Not many people know this, but Malaysia is home to a pretty active beatboxing scene. The problem, though, is that most of the beatboxers are scattered all over the country, something which BeatNation hopes to fix.

BeatNation were winners of the 2012 Beat Street Dance Competition alongside the Rejuvenate dance crew.

“The idea of BeatNation was to create a community of beatboxers where everyone in the country with the same passion can come under one umbrella and have better support,” said Cody Foo, 21, aka Coex, one of the founders of BeatNation.

Coex was speaking exclusively to the BRATs last week at Artisan Café, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, alongside fellow members of BeatNation’s A-Team – Aaron Lui, 21, Samuel Saw, 19, and Ezra Carvalho Soon, 19.

The BeatNation A-Team beatboxers, (from left) SamSaw, A.Ron, Coex and Ezra, messing around during their interview with the BRATs.

The group is just one of many under the BeatNation umbrella.
Adding the words “BeatNation” to your group name is a way to show that you represent the community.

“For example, there’s a group that’s called the BeatNation Durian Team, and there are others like Filiinoctis. They can call themselves BeatNation Filiinoctis if they want. We actually encourage that,” said Lui, aka A.RON, 21, another member of the A-Team.

BeatNation even has affiliations with other beatboxing communities from around the world.
Saw, 19, who goes by the name SamSaw, said: “We have this thing called the ASEAN Beatbox Connection for beatboxers in South East Asia to keep in contact, so we can learn from each other and improve together as a family.”

The winner of The Beat Street Dance Competition 2012 Beatnation Feat Rejuvenate.

Just last year, BeatNation put their international connections to good use when they brought in Joel Turner, the first World Beatboxing Champion, to judge their Penang Beatbox Championships. He also gave some workshops while he was in the country.

But these guys don’t just organise events and beatbox among themselves. They’ve performed at some huge gigs – like the closing of the recent DiGi WWWOW Awards – and won a whole bunch of competitions.

To find out more about BeatNation, check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/BeatNation.
And to watch the A-Team do their thing, you can log on to the R.AGE YouTube channel (youtube.com/RageOnlineTV) or the BRATs Facebook page (facebook.com/starbrats).