Hell yes, believe it or not (oh, you better believe it!) beatboxing is still alive and well in 2022. If you don't believe us, go check out The Best of Max Bent & Stan Ipcus: He's The Beatboxer, I'm The Rapper. It's a sprawling nine-track collection that spans 25 years of organic D.I.Y. beats and rhymes collaborative efforts between two life-long friends, Stan Ipcus & Max B. Human Beatboxer Max Bent and seasoned emcee Stan Ipcus have been performing and recording together since the late 90's when they were both students and aspiring musicians at The University of Maryland (UMD.)

They, literally, met on-air in 1998 during a live freestyle session broadcast on college radio station, WMUC, when Max was beatboxing for a room full of rappers and Stan Ipcus stepped up to the mic to flex his skills. The audio recording of that WMUC moment—plus, eight other Max Bent & Stan Ipcus beatbox/emcee collaborations spanning almost 25 years—is included on this new Best of Max Bent & Stan Ipcus compilation. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of the tracklist from Big I.P. himself, Stan Ipcus, otherwise known as Daniel "Dan" Isenberg. The Best of Max Bent & Stan Ipcus: He's The Beatboxer, I'm The Rapper is now available exclusivelty on Bandcamp.


Recorded at the height of The Pandemic in June 2020, "Big Ip Don't Play" is a flip on the classic Grand Puba cut, "Big Kids Don't Play." Being that Grand Puba grew up in New Rochelle, [New York] just minutes from Stan Ipcus' home in White Plains, he was always one of Stan's favorite emcees. And when he had the idea to rap over a loop of Puba's classic Reel to Reel album cut, he hit Max up to flip a beatbox version of it and give it new life. The result? Well, somehow DJ Premier got a hold of the song and ended up playing it six weeks in a row on his Shade 45 radio show. Alchemist Tweeted Ipcus to tell him he was a fan of the track, too. To this day, Max & Stan are still in disbelief.


Originally recorded in 2005 over a rare Mobb Deep instrumental, "Pumpkin Cheesecake" was a staple for many years at live Stan Ipcus shows. And he and Max had always talked about making a beatbox version of it. So, as the holiday season of 2020 approached, which is prime pumpkin cheesecake season, they decided to give it a try. Stan updated the lyrics and even included a shout-out to DJ Premier in the opening bars and Max laced him with a completely new take on the original. Once again, DJ Premier played it multiple weeks on his radio show and even posted a video on his Instagram page cutting the song up. Insert two Exploding Head Emojis.


You may notice that Ipcus is calling Max "Gabe" at the beginning of this. That's because he confused Max with his friend, Gabe, who was also in attendance at the radio station that night, thus, proving this truly was recorded at a time where Max & Stan didn't know each other. Decent chemistry off-rip, right? Coincidentally, Max is beatboxing renditions of two DJ Premier-produced classics during this live clip—[Gang Starr's] "Work" and [Das EFX's] "Real Hip-Hop." It's crazy how things come full-circle.


In the Fall of 1999, Stan Ipcus was invited by a classmate to participate in a Battle of The Bands on campus. And one of his opponents was The Anonymous Crew, a Hip-Hop group that his friend, Max Bent, was a member of. Anonymous took home first place, and Ipcus took second, winning five hours of free studio time at a local recording studio in College Park. So, in January 2000 during winter break, Ipcus & Max cashed in and hit the studio together to record three tracks. The first two were produced by Max on his ASR, but the last was a one-take beatbox/emcee track where Ipcus ran through four verses filled with various tales of campus craziness as Max switched up beat styles multiple times. The unrehearsed recording became an instant favorite among their peers. And over two decades later, it remains a fun and impressive display of the duo's skill, synergy, and creativity.


After the success of "Big Ip Don't Play," Ipcus wanted to challenge himself and his old pal to take on a double-time joint next. He wanted to showcase just how ill Max's beatbox skills were and, also, how versatile he was as an emcee. So, he sent the idea to re-make JAY-Z's Timbaland-laced classic and Max jumped at the idea. Within a week, Max had the beat done and Ipcus had his three verses written and recorded. If there's one song on this compilation that demands Max & Ipcus get their respect, it's this one.


This is the newest cut on the compilation and a flip of a Stan Ipcus song that was shelved by the original version's producer. The shelving pained Ipcus so much that he had to figure out a way to release the song with a different beat. So, he enlisted Max to re-create the track and with that, "The Dunk" became Max & Ipcus' newest beatbox/emcee jam. And, finally, Ipcus could sleep again at night knowing his favorite song was re-created to be even better than the original version he loved so much... Fun Fact: Stan Ipcus was born on May 25th, 1978, the same date as "The Dunk" (May 25th, 1993,) one of the greatest moments in Knicks history. Another Fun Fact: Ipcus' oldest son was born on May 25th, too. So, "The Dunk" is special to him for a few reasons and this is a special song because it's another collaboration with his long-time friend, Max Bent, who absolutely bodied this beatbox track.


This verse is from the first round of a 2005 beatbox/emcee team battle where Max & Ipcus ended up facing off against a then unknown Lin-Manuel Miranda in the finals. Spoiler Alert: they lost after being disqualified for replicating an industry beat on their beatbox version of "Ipcus Walks," a routine based on a flip of [K*nye W*st's] "Jesus Walks" they had saved for the final round without realizing it would be a rule-breaker. Whether Lin and his team would've won anyway without the disqualification is still a big unknown. But if you ask Ipcus, he will contend that he and Max were on fire and they absolutely deserved to win. In fact, the loss stung so much that Ipcus rudely dismissed Lin's graciousness after the battle and he still refuses to watch Hamilton to this day.


This medley of ethnic food-inspired beat and rap pairings was born during a session at Sony Studios in Manhattan, which was a second home to Stan Ipcus as he pursued a major label deal with the support of InYerFace Records in the mid-2000's. The deal never happened and InYerFace folded before Ipcus could ever release any music with them, but this gem remains.


To celebrate the start of the 2022 MLB season, Max & Ipcus decided to take a swing at a beatbox version of Ipcus' solo joint, "9th Inning," which was another favorite of Preemo [DJ Premier]'s and, also, made their mutual friend, Peter Rosenberg's Best of 2020 playlist. Max flipped both the beat and the chorus vocals to re-create the classic loop that Ipcus used as a tribute to one of his favorite rap songs of all-time, Fat Joe & KRS-One's Diamond D-produced banger, "Bronx Tale." This is how you close out a beatbox/emcee compilation.