Fabpz the Freelancer: “Underground Styling Breeze” – a Beatboxing Compilation
Pete Atkinson b.k.a Fabp aka Fabpz the Freelancer attended I.A.R in NYC. Pete engineers and makes beats using Reason with synths and Protools. Hip Hop & Dancehall is Fapk’s main genre, who cites his major influences as being Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Jay-z, Bounty Killer and Lady Saw. He started to produce beats and rhymes officially in 2006 after attending I.A.R for the first time and at that point decided to make music his career. A member of ASCAP, Fabp launched his own record label called X-Calade Promotionz. Dancehall and Hiphop doesn’t get much darker, harder, or more eclectic than Fabp aka Fabpz the Freelancer. His vocal delivery is unusual for the genre, as is his unrushed flowing verses and choruses. He is a genuine and a true do-it-yourself artist that takes care of all things himself. In the process he has released a plethora of singles and mixtapes to maintain his bursting at the seams catalog.
Fresh out of the 2018 oven comes Fabpz the Freelancer’s latest creative endeavor – “Underground Styling Breeze” – a 14 track compilation of Beatboxing Classics. Although the four elements of hip-hop, MCing, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti, have garnered great respect in the global art community, beatboxing culture remains fairly undocumented. Musical expression through the body stands at the core of human communication, making beatbox a very organic art form. This album works its way through the musical expression of the body with sounds crafted by only using the mouth, throat, and nose.
A lot of us may think of Beatboxing as people getting up in front of a microphone and making the same sounds with their mouths that an instrument might make, but it’s really so much more. “Underground Styling Breeze” goes to show you that you can do anything with a recording instrument and imagination.
This is not an album for those who love the smooth over produced studio sound of the current hip hop. This album is not perfect, and it’s not perfect because true creativity has rough patches. Fabpz the Freelancer’s isn’t a new artist or beatboxer; he is just new to your sound system. He has been performing for years, mainly in Dancehall.
I’m partial to the dynamics of a song: the build, the transitions from verses to choruses, the rise and fall, and it’s obviously easier to obtain with instrumentation but Fabpz the Freelancer’s beatboxing satisfied my craving. Every now and then I was still eager for the music to start, but once I got deeper into the playlist, I got over it.
Because he’s so intricate with the construction of his beats, they often say just as much about the mood of the song as the lyrics do. The different sonic and rhythmic layers to the songs are interesting rather than distracting and almost make the tracks go by in whisk and before you know it, it’s over and you sort of just want it to play again.
What draws me to this art is the pure rawness which Beatboxing exudes. It’s like Fabpz the Freelancer’s body absorbs music, which he can then alter and mold at his own will. It’s like the poetry of the epiglottis. There are no frills and fancies, all there is, is a mic and Fabz.
Of course with minimal interference, the lyrical content becomes essential as Fabpz the Freelancer drops anecdotes, experiences and thoughts, inside of his rhymes. Long before we had booming beats, Hip Hop possessed a simpler sound. With one mic, and a mouth, coupled with a knack for rhythmic sounds.
This is the essence of what Fabpz the Freelancer brings to us with the album “Underground Styling Breeze”. He adds a Dancehall twist and a lazy leftfield delivery to make his Beatboxing set highly original.
