This Man Started the Beatboxing Culture in Conflict-Ridden Kashmir

In 2017, as 200 people stared at the stage, Sufiyan Rouf’s larynx dried up, meaning he was unable to use any of his instruments—lips, mouth, tongue, and his voice. It was the first time Rouf was performing a beatbox routine, an alien culture for an unaccustomed audience in Kashmir. He stopped to ask for water. “I was shit scared,” he recalled his experience to VICE World News.

Then 18-year-old, Rouf was not a pro. The year before that, he was at his residence, in Kashmir’s winter capital Srinagar, making “bad noises” that irked his parents and watching beatbox battle videos of artists on YouTube. But it was just a "fun, dope thing” to do all along.

But there he was, sporting a red polo t-shirt, with a mic in his hands to blast. A local YouTuber shot his performance and dropped on the internet. It has more than 8,600 views today. 

In 2016, when Kashmir witnessed an uprising, Rouf was 16. The government forces killed Burhan Wani, a militant commander, in an encounter. In resulting unrest, 76 civilians were killed, and Kashmir witnessed a 132-day shutdown. Rouf had no mobile internet, except broadband. And a hell lot of free time on him. 

“I did nothing for months except surfing the internet all day,” Rouf recalled the 2016 shutdown. That’s when he was introduced to beatboxing. “It felt good,” he said, and joked, “like music to my ears.” 

He didn’t mean to master the art. He just got into it. Gradually, he found his playlist swamped with beatbox routines. Now that’s the music he begins his morning with; while driving, or was walking around. He said he does not watch tutorial videos or training manuals. 

“After a few months, I realised: ‘Oh! I’m getting better at it,’” he said. “I started memorising the music.”

Kashmir has had a rich history of hip-hop. Its firebrand MC Kash, aka Roushan Ilahi, made it big with his sharp lyrics in the 2010 civilian uprising that killed over 120 civilians. Many more followed his fame and made a name for themselves, including EssXaar, Kingg UTB, and Shayan Nabi. So was the scene with independent pop culture. But these artists were always independent and were unable to monetise their work because Kashmir does not have a music industry. 

Beatbox was never a thing in Kashmir. What worked in Rouf’s favour was that he was the only one doing it. His work on social media, and the subsequent coverage in local media, helped him to catch a few events too. 

Rouf likes everything about beatboxing, “the sound, the vibe, and it was dope”. He continued and made a schedule for himself to be better at it. “Plop! Plop!” he did an impromptu water dripping sound. “It takes a week to learn a sound—then a life to master it,” he said. He does not practice, sitting on a table, or with a mic. “I just practice it while doing daily life things,” he said. 

In 2019, Rouf got enrolled in Sharda University in Greater Noida, a satellite town of India’s national capital. A rapper friend, Mad Skull, introduced him to New Delhi’s beatboxing community, where he would later often join them for jamming. 

Himanshu Bhat, who has been in the scene for eight years and is associated with Delhi BBX, a community of beatboxers in New Delhi registered with BBX India, has jammed routines with Rouf. “He has sparked the scene in Kashmir. Before him, we never heard of any other artist from that place,” Bhat said. 

“I learned more in Delhi in six months than I did in Kashmir in two years,” said Rouf. And this fact troubled him: why not in Kashmir?

Due to his work, more beatboxers started approaching him for guidance. To help out more young artists in Kashmir, he formed a collective, Kashmir Beatbox in 2019.

Now, the community has 25 artists and is registered with India’s largest beatbox community, BBX India. 

“He [Rouf] found many of these artists on his own,” said Bhat. “He is a pillar that supports many other emerging artists and this scene. His work has invoked excitement in other young artists.”

There was a communication blackout and a social media ban for seven months from August 2019 to March 2020. Even now, eight million people surf the internet—except two districts in J&K—on restricted mobile internet speed. It has also affected Rouf’s jamming sessions. 

With him back at home, the community tries to jam together on Discord, a group-chatting platform popular among beatboxing communities. The ailing internet often leaves them furious. But Rouf is more excited than ever before for his future. 

Recently, he collaborated with Adnan Manzoor, a traditional rabab player. He plans to collaborate with other pop artists in Kashmir to give a push to the artform and elevate social acceptance. At the same time, he is working on a 6-track independent EP, where he has collaborated with other artists from the Kashmir Beatbox community. It will be out in 2021.

Mohammad Muneem, who co-founded one of Kashmir’s most popular bands, Alif, is all praise for Rouf’s journey. “He is brave enough to pursue something that is not accepted as much as other genres in Kashmir.” Muneem told VICE World News. “He has created a niche space for himself and that’s great.” Alif Band is exploring options to work with Rouf.

More importantly, impressed by Rouf’s thirst for originality, Muneem says he wants to see is “him inspiring a lot of young artists in Kashmir to take up beatbox as an artform, seriously”.

However, the regional scene remains a little grim. “It is more international. And that’s my dream,” he said, “to represent Kashmir at the Grand Beatbox Battle by Swissbeatbox.”

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