Back in 2003, David and Steven Cantor found themselves beat boxing during their morning car rides to school to past the time. One day, fourteen-year-old Steven decided to look into this new hobby that he discovered.
Becoming a fan of beat boxers like Kenny Muhammad and Rahzel, Steven quickly developed a passion for this craft.
“[Beat boxing] is something that you can literally take with you anywhere and anytime,” Cantor said. “It’s almost like a little super power that you can whip out whenever and it catches everybody off guard.”
Eight years later, Steven “HeaveN” Cantor is a senior at Georgia State majoring in film and video.
In his free time, he has performed in a Foot Locker commercial, done countless shows and recently returned from traveling the world with a renowned break dancing crew, HaviKoro.
Cantor was able to perform for millions of people during their tour of five cities in India and also, got to bring the art of beat boxing to children in third world countries.
“Personally, I’ll tell you right now when I was put on this tour I didn’t really know what I was getting into,” Cantor said. “I didn’t realize how big it was. You’re talking about a multi-million dollar tour for like six people.”
HaviKoro frequently tours around the world through American Voices, a not-for-profit organization that specializes in cultural exchanges abroad.
While they were there, the six would do workshops with a wide range of people. They taught adults at major universities and children who lived in very impoverished areas.
“[We went] to the most underprivileged places you could ever imagine and taught kids in the slums who have absolutely nothing,” Cantor said. “It makes you think, ‘I’m never going to go home and complain again.'”
Cantor and HaviKoro got a chance to inspire the children to change their situation through the art of beat boxing and break dancing.
“The aim was to show them that anyone can do this. You don’t have to be rich, or have an instrument or have money to make something of yourself.”
While beat boxing had its origin in the early 1980s here in America, in a lot of other countries the genre is still brand new and getting off the ground.
“Here,[America] it’s such an underground art that people don’t realize that it still exists, yet everywhere else in the world its huge,” Cantor said.
The immense craving for the hip-hop culture in India is apparent in the size of the crowds Cantor and the break dancing crew performed for. Their largest show was for 1.5 million people.
“It’s weird being here not many people even have heard of beat boxing or if they have, they have a certain perspective of what it is,” Cantor said. “Go overseas, not only have people heard of you, it’s like a big deal. It’s an interesting demographic because it’s a whole new world of possibilities.”
