If you thought last year’s wildcards were insane, this year’s has a whole new batch of insane. With 11 wildcards this year, there are sure to be upsets all throughout GBBB 2018. The wildcard winners for this year are:
- Show-Go
- Codfish
- Bigman
- D-Low
- Two.H
- H-Has
- Rythmind
- Chris Celiz
- Helium
- Piratheeban
- Ish
There are a lot of big names on this list, some are newcomers for their on the international scene and others are veterans making another appearance to hopefully take the title. Let’s run them down.
SHOW-GO:
This wildcard is definitely the best out of them all, hands down. His biggest strength is how well he uses double voice so it sounds musical. It’s one of the harder sounds to make sound really good musically but Show-go makes it work and it’s beautiful.
CODFISH:
Not enough people give shoutouts in their wildcards and Codfish found a wonderful to do it. Coming up with a new routine, Old Mate Firebender, combining it with his one of his best routines, Sail With Me, this is just one of the best ones I’ve heard. The shoutout is incorporated into the routine itself which is really smart. It’s really structured like a song where he has three verses and a beat that changes over the course of the song. This is definitely my favourite wildcard out of the bunch.
BIGMAN:
This guy is probably the most well-known beatboxer on this list because of his appearance on Ellen. Props to him for that. Coming up with a new routine, “I don’t love you,” I’m starting to sense a pattern here. Falling Love, Get Tired Of My Love, I Don’t Love You. I feel like an album is coming out based on the theme of love. Back to the point, THIS MAN IS A MUSICAL GENIUS. One of the reasons he’s so well-known is because musicality has taken over and if you don’t have musicality in your routines, you don’t make it in. He’s so musical to the point that it becomes technicality when you try to cover his routines. He also has a great singing voice to go along with it. He doesn’t appear to have that killer battle instinct which might hurt him but I would love to see him go all the way.
D-LOW:
D-low’s routines are a work of art. He always brings something new to the table. This really musical wildcard is an example of that. This is unlike anything we’ve seen D-low do before. He’s starting to go more away from liprolls and technicality but makes up for it in other areas and his uniqueness. There’s that sort of perfect style that one looks for over time and he’s slowly reaching it and perfecting it. He has that killer instinct to want to win and I want to see that from him.
TWO.H:
Two.H. GBBB finalist. Whenever Two.H comes out with a new routine or wildcard, he always brings something new to the table. His signature demon bass is something that I’d love to see more of. It’s so unique to him, it defines him and a lot of his routines and has potential to make the crowd go crazy. I want to see the Two.H from 3 years ago come back and go all the way.
H-HAS:
This guy, in my opinion, is like Hiss 2.0. He has that mix of technicality and musicality that works so well. He uses less technicality than Hiss but the drop in this wildcard with the bird sound tells me that he has a lot of potential left. This sort of style works so well because it’s enjoyable to listen to even if it’s put together like a freestyle. I think he’s going to be a sleeper in this competition.
RYTHMIND:
From the get-go of this wildcard, it has a really Reeps One sort of vibe with the different kinds of percussion he uses. This is soon seen to be changed as a cover of GDFR can be heard. It’s put in a really cool way though. There’s one massive flaw with this wildcard and that’s the lack of structure. The drop isn’t very noticeable because he doesn’t really build it. I do understand that Rythmind is more of a looper and a member of Berywam, one of the top beatboxing groups in the world, but this is something he really needs to develop in order to do well in the solos.
CHRIS CELIZ:
Out of all the wildcards submitted, this is probably the one that has received the most hate and I can see why. Even Chris himself said that he was surprised that he even got in. I think the hate really comes from the fact that the other wildcards were more technical and upbeat than this one. Whatever the reason is, Chris got in and he’s thankful for it. In terms of pure musicality, this one takes it as it’s not only a cover but also stays true to the song. By this, I mean that the cover still sounds like the song and not like a remix which can be heard from other beatboxers. Not much technicality can be heard and I don’t expect him to go far given his previous success at GBBB but I do expect his elimination round to be pretty entertaining.
HELIUM:
Helium has gone further and further away from his roots that made him famous, the zipper. He’s still known for using the zipper in ways that no one would expect but he’s starting to use them less and less and this is actually a good thing. This allows Helium to focus on other areas. His routines are more musical and technical. I was really surprised to hear him use double voice but it seems like he keeps up with the trends. I don’t really find him using a lot of prepared routines because he seems to be more of a freestyler which works fine for his style but if he brings a few routines with him, he could go really far.
PIRATHEEBAN:
One of the cleaner beatboxers in the competition, Piratheeban covers everything this routine. I would compare him this routine to Ball-Zee because of how clean and technical he is. He’s also very musical with this routine. I don’t find much wrong with this routine aside from a slight problem in the structure where he doesn’t build the drop *enough* but it’s noticeable and he’s a champion so I think he can get it done.
ISH:
Last time I heard from Ish was his wildcard for GNB earlier this year. He has improved a lot since then and it shows. He has more of that killer mentality where he wants to do well and try hard. I remember he lacked a lot of that confidence from last time and I love seeing that he’s finally got that confidence. He’s also built up the techniques and developed his style a lot more. Another good sleeper pick for GBBB and I’m really glad he got chosen as the people’s pick.
I do want to give a mention to other beatboxers that I thought could have made the list but didn’t. They include the following:
- B-Art
- Wing
- Zekka
- Elisii
- FootboxG
- Cosmin
- MR MIC
- Kevin O’Neal
- MIXFX
- Neolizer
I probably missed someone where there were so many stacked wildcards this year that I could understand the judges having difficulty choosing. Who do you think can make it all the way? Who do you think got left out? Leave your responses in the comments.
Other than that, thanks for reading.
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