Shlomo

"This is real music, this isn't a gimmick," says Shlomo, a 22-year-old human beatboxer from Leeds, England. Be it through his own unique compositions or trying his hand at covers of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" or Blackstreet's "No Diggity," this dude has mad skills on the mic that have found him performing at Glastonbury and on the BBC numerous times where he's been called "all mouth... and trousers" by Jools Holland and the "Harry Potter of beatbox" by knucklehead hip-hop DJ Tim Westwood. However, the best accolade came from Björk, herself, when she crowned him "the new bright hope of the hip-hop scene" and invited him to perform on her 2004 vocally-enhanced album, Medulla. Shlomo then followed the Icelandic icon to Athens that year to perform "Oceania" at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. Most recently Shlomo has been leading the first human beatbox choir known as the Vocal Orchestra, which consists of five-time Grammy-winning vocal group the Swingle Singers alongside four of the UK's top human beatboxers (check out their rendition of Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" below). It's no wonder he's at the centre of a documentary called The Beatbox Choir (see trailer below), which opens in London on October 29. And to prove he has his hip-hop cred (Westwood's approval means little, really), to this day he's opened gigs for Grandmaster Flash, the GZA, Guru (Gangstarr) and Public Enemy. Shlomo is currently working on a debut album expected some time soon.

Click here for some audio clips on his MySpace page.

The Beatbox Choir Trailer


Live on Later... With Jools Holland


Live at the BAC in London


Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra "You Can Call Me Al"


Björk "Oceania" (video)


Björk "Oceania" (Olympic Games in Athens)