Revd Gavin Tyte has won a national competition to make a video version of the nativity.
His beatbox nativity has scooped the top prize in an online competition run by ITN and Jerusalem Productions, which asked contestants to create a three minute video retelling the story of the nativity as creatively as possible.
Over 18,000 people have watched his entry on Youtube, which sees him posing in costume as an angel, shepherd and narrator and rapping lyrics such as: ‘Back in the day of Caesar Augustus / He decreed to proceed with an empirical census / The first while Quirinius was the Syrian nexus / To enlist and insist people get on the next bus.’
Written and produced by Gavin, (aka TyTe) the beatbox nativity combines two of Gavin’s loves – the Bible and human beatboxing. Human beatboxing is making drum and percussion sounds with the mouth. Gavin has been beatboxing since he was about 8 years old, and is one of the pioneers of beatboxing, having created the worlds first beatboxing videos on the Internet. He has been a regular judge of the UK beatboxing championships and was editor of an international beatboxing website . Gavin is also the part-time vicar of Uplyme and Axmouth churches.
He said: “What has been interesting is how The Beatbox Nativity has divided people. People seem to either love it or hate it (a bit like Marmite). But then the gospel story has always been provocative hasn’t it? Some rejoiced in the birth of Christ whereas others, such as Herod, tried to have the Christ-child killed. So it is no surprise that the nativity – even a contemporised English version – still generates a reaction.”
He said he had one email from an atheist who loved it and said it made him listen and learn.
The top prize for the competition was £5,000.
See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyuzSzdpE38