A beatboxing lesson from a father-daughter duo

Nicole Paris was raised to be a beatboxer — when she was young, her father, Ed Cage, used to beatbox her to sleep at night. Now the duo is known for their beatbox battles and jam sessions, which mix classic rap beats with electronic dance sounds. Prepare yourself for a bit of a hip-hop history lesson, and enjoy the show.

Nicole Paris: TEDYouth, make some noise!

(Beatboxing)

TEDYouth, make some --

(Beatboxing)

(Beatboxing ends)

Are you ready?

(Cheers and applause)

Are you ready?

Ed Cage: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

(Beatboxing)

(Laughter)

EC: Y'all like that? Let me show you
how we used to do it --

NP: Get it pops, go ahead.

EC: ... when I was growing up in the '90s.

(Beatboxing)

(Beatboxing ends)

(Laughter)

(Beatboxing)

NP: Pops, pops, pops, pops, pops, pops,

hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up!

Oh my God.

OK, he's trying to battle me.

Hold on, right now, hold on.

Do you remember when you used
to beatbox me to sleep?

EC: Yeah, yeah, I remember.

That's when she was a little baby.

We would do something like this.

(Beatboxing)

NP: I remember that.

(Beatboxing)

NP: All right, pops, pops, pops,
chill out, chill out.

Hold up, hold up, hold up.

EC: Y'all remember the video.

This is like a little payback or something

for 50 million people
calling me the loser.

NP: Hold up, hold up.

But a lot of people out there don't
really know what beatboxing is,

where it started from.

EC: Right, right.

NP: Where it came from.

So why don't you give
them a little history --

just a tickle -- a bit of history
of where it comes from.

EC: Beatbox started here in New York.

(Cheers)

That's right, that's right.
New York, New York!

Everybody like, "Yeah!"

Well, we from St. Louis.

(Laughter)

NP: Now you can put y'all hands down.

(Laughter)

EC: But beatbox started here in New York.

What you would have is that,
when we would go to parties,

you would have the DJ
and you would have the rapper.

But because I don't have
electricity coming out of me,

we had to emulate
what the beats was doing.

So when you would see the beatboxer,

you would see us over to the side.

Then you would see a rapper,
and when the rapper began to rap,

we would do a simple beat,

because back then the beats were simple --

(Beatboxing)

or --

(Beatboxing)

Those were simple beats.

But now, you got folks that want
to do all type of stuff

with their beats now,

and they want to humiliate their father,

which is not right when you want
to humiliate the person

that take care of you, pay
all your tuition, (Nicole laughs)

especially when you have 50 million people

that just go around
and call you "the loser."

Well, I'm taking that to heart.

But now we do something
different in our house,

so we have these jam sessions,

and our jam sessions consist
of us jamming in church.

You know, in church,
we'll look at each other like,

(Beatboxing)

(Laughter)

and we'll text the beat to each other.

Or we'll be in the kitchen cooking,

road trips, airports.

NP: Standing right there in the corner,
"Aw, Dad -- listen to that."

(Beatboxing)

Naw, I'm kidding. But you know what?

We're talking all about this
jam session and everything.

EC: Yeah.

NP: Why don't we give them a little peek,
just a tiny bit of our jam session?

NP: Y'all want to hear some jam session?
EC: Y'all ready for a jam session?

(Cheers)

NP: Sorry? I can't hear you.

(Cheers)

Yeah! Kick it, pops!

(Beatboxing)

(Applause)

(Beatboxing)

(Beatboxing ends)

(Applause)

NP: I'm getting ready to go!

EC: Y'all ready? Everybody stand up!
Come on, everybody stand up!

Get on up! Come on, stretch!

(Beatboxing)

(Beatboxing ends)

NP: That's it.

(Cheers and applause)

Thank you! Make some noise!

EG: Thank you, everybody!

NP: Make some noise! Make some noise!

Thank you!