Collegiate Times

Standing in front of the Collegiate Times office, in a blue-and-white striped polo and jeans, the noises fall out of Stein's mouth, sounding like a different musician is responsible for each one.

As he performs, he covers his mouth with his right hand. The only things visible are his eyes, a small portion of his lips and teeth spasmodically moving.

His brow tends to furrow, covering up part of his eyes and giving him a somewhat sinister appearance -- something that Stein became aware of when he used to beatbox without covering his mouth.

"I used to do that (not cover his mouth) in open areas," he said. "And people would always tell me that I looked like I was really mad."

There are not only one or two sounds, but a wall of noises that funnel into a funky beat. The rhythm is fast but never rushed, each sound trailing the other one; not crowding it, coming too early, or slipping out of beat.

There are the sounds familiar to any beatbox repertoire: the snare, the hi-hat, or the sound of a record scratching for example. People's heads start to pop out of offices along the hallway, fascinated with Stein's impromptu moment.

Stein conjured up an array of other sounds, some guttural like the cry of a didgeridoo; others sound wet, like the noise of a bubble popping or slowed down words annunciated in a "chopped and screwed" fashion. During one part he wheezed out what sounded like the words "and you're funked" in between the scratchy beat.

Making these noises, Stein said, has a lot to do with placing hard accents on sounds and words in certain places. It also has to do with the position of the lips and teeth. For example, to make the noise of a record being scratched, Stein was instructed to say a word while his mouth was positioned in a specific way.

"This guy said, 'just say 'chewie,'" Stein said. "Except spread your teeth out and flatten out your lips and it comes out."

This talent has seemingly added a certain flavor to the community in terms of a gradually building campus legend and Stein's verbal music giving as much as it gets.

Many students don't seem to mind the extra soundtrack on their way to class.

"If you see him, tell him to keep doing his thing," Knight said. "I really appreciate it."

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