Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box (film)

Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box (2002) is a documentary directed by filmmaker Joey Garfield. With its length of 74 minutes it is the first feature documentary that entirely deals with the subject of beatboxing.

With his film Garfield retrieved and preserved one of the most valuable video clips for beatbox history. It is an excerpt of the first appearance of The Fat Boys in The Morning Show hosted by Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey in 1984, which was aired on ABC 7 / Channel 7.

When asked by Philbin, "You are the beatbox. When did you discover that you have this certain ability?" Darren Robinson answered, "Seven years ago" and gave a short beatbox demonstration. Just after this excerpt Darren's older brother Curtis states, "when I first started hearing him play the beatbox he was maybe about 10 years old".

The two references to the year 1977, which marked the starting point for the development of his beatbox skills, is in accordance with his brother's statement from 2009 in the documentary "Beatboxing - The Fifth Element of Hip Hop", in which Curtis Robinson also states that he saw Darren doing the beatbox for the first time after the Blackout of 1977.

Garfield retrieved the recording from an old, private VHS tape.

ABC 7 or Channel 7 is part of (WABC-TV), a television network for the city and state of New York.

A timecoded copy of the film is preserved in digital form and accessable in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.