Short answers, pulled from the story.
Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion that primarily involves mimicking drum machines, using the mouth, lips, tongue, throat, and voice. It originated in the inner-city neighbourhoods of New York in the 1980s as a way to replicate the sounds of drum machines, particularly the Roland TR-808, when the real hardware was unavailable or unaffordable.
Buffy is credited as the first human beatbox and also helped perfect many foundational techniques. Swifty was the first to implement the inhale sound technique. Wise developed the human turntable technique, while Rahzel became known for singing and beatboxing simultaneously. Kenny Muhammad pioneered the inward k snare technique.
Beatboxing is referred to as the unofficial fifth element of hip-hop because it developed alongside the four traditionally recognised elements: DJing, MCing, graffiti, and breakdancing. It emerged in the same New York inner-city communities where those elements took shape, serving as a vocal substitute for drum machines in ciphers and performances.
Alex Tew, performing as A-Plus, founded the first online beatboxing community in 2000 at HUMANBEATBOX.COM. In 2001, community member Gavin Tyte created the world's first written and video tutorials on beatboxing. By 2003, the community hosted the world's first Human Beatbox Convention in London.
Standard Beatbox Notation was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin Tyte of Humanbeatbox.com in 2006 as an alternative to International Phonetic Alphabet transcription. It provides a more accessible way to write down and share beatbox patterns. A separate notation system combining IPA with musical staff notation was proposed in a 2013 research study using real-time MRI imaging of a beatboxer.
The Guinness World Record for the largest human beatbox ensemble was set on the 26th of June 2017 by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, with 6,430 participants. The event celebrated the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.