A world-renowned beatboxer and a self - taught musician from India, Vineeth Vincent is also an emcee and a performing artist. He likes his beats to do the talking and he yearns to push his limits of human voice to achieve more. He is one of India's biggest beatboxers with over 1600 shows to his credit. He is also the presenter & host of the India’s biggest youth fest - the ‘Under 25 summit'.
One-man army, both as an artiste and a performer, Vineeth was once a part of India's first high-flying dip into organising and promoting beatboxing.
“Beatboxing cannot be categorised as a genre, and it mustn't. It's an alternative form of music. And you don't just use your vocal chords. It’s form of vocal percussion & has breached the limits of what one person can simulate.”
Born and brought up in Bangalore, Vineeth struggled with maths and languages throughout his school & college and was forced to focus on his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Vineeth believes he would have been in a different place in his career if he was given the privilege of focussing on what he was good at. This was a lesson for him that made him focus on what he can do and not worry on what he can’t.
He started his career with part time jobs at a very young age of 15. Within one year he got his first full time job, post which he started working at the backend in the event & entertainment industry.
In the initial years of his career, he tried to become a musician but he didn’t make enough money to sustain himself and so he quit trying. His journey as an on-stage host started off in 2007 and his career as a beatboxer kicked off in 2008. Vineeth covered over 1600 shows since 2006.
Vineeth says “Making a living out of music has always been the dream, a dream I am coming back to in 2020 after a 13 year gap. Believe it or not, this is the only thing that makes me nervous and it really scares me and I finally felt like I was making a decent living only when I was close to 30s. The journey has been filled with struggles and heartbreaks but I've done my best to focus on the positives.”
Vineeth, for a long time, wanted to collaborate beatbox with a different instrument. The combination of two great beat boxers and an instrument that is unknown to people is the brand new plan of Vineeth. Through the ‘Video A Week’ project called SaxBox with WhoisMD (beatbox) & Rahul Joshua Thomas (sax). They put out a cover of a new song at a different location every week, recording both, the audio and video live.
While the lip-smacking battles will continue, the assortment of sounds has transformed the art. Vineeth judged battles and has mastered the art over the years to become a professional and also a mentor to beginners. He hires beatboxers to perform with him whenever he travels across the country to perform and he provides employment to younger and newer beatboxers in the field.
On 10 January 2011, Christ Junior College, Bangalore, under ensemble director Vineeth Vincent, in an event titled 'Can You Say Beat Box?' created the largest human beatbox ensemble in the Limca Book of Records with 2136 participants.
According to the Guinness World Records, the previous record for the largest human beatbox ensemble involved 1,246 participants and was achieved by Vineeth Vincent and Christ University (India) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, on 5 February 2011. This record was broken by Shlomo on 14 November 2011 with 2,081 participants.
Vineeth represented India on the Judge's panel for the first ever ‘India Beat boxing championship’ which was held in December 2016 in Nagaland. Out of four judges he was only judge representing India, rest of the judges came from across the globe.
Vineeth held the title, for Limca book of world records. Has Spoken seven times at TEDx and two times at Josh Talks. And adding to it, he hosted and performed at 4 times MI Talks, Delhi.
“I think all of us need to be better as humans and the journey starts with ME! Over the last few years, I have been reducing my carbon footprint and trying to offset the same. I got myself an electric scooter, a solar panel installation, I've gone from being a meat eater to being a vegan, I try and source my food locally. I've kept a target of planting and maintaining 100 trees for 2019. I've also reduced my need for consumption and things. Before I ask the people around me to live kinder and smarter, I wanted to start with myself.”