Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen

Share This

NPR News

A father passes along the joy of beatboxing to his daughter

Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's Friday, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. And today we hear from a father-daughter beatboxing duo. In the 1980s, Ed Cage fell in love with beatboxing, which was part of the St. Louis hip-hop scene. His daughter, Nicole Paris, inherited that love, and they talked it over at StoryCorps.

ED CAGE: When Mom was pregnant with you, I would get right up on her stomach and beatbox to Mom's belly - (beatboxing) - and you would feel the vibration.

NICOLE PARIS: (Laughter).

Support for LAist comes from

CAGE: And when I did that, you would just shake. And one of the greatest joys of my life was actually seeing you being born.

PARIS: Were you prepared at all to be a father?

CAGE: No, no.

PARIS: (Laughter).

CAGE: I wasn't prepared. I was 16 when we had your brother. So when I said, OK, I'm going to do this, I threw everything into it.

PARIS: You had, like, two, three - how many jobs did you...

CAGE: No, I had four jobs. I had so many jobs at one time, Nicole...

Support for LAist comes from

PARIS: Four jobs?

CAGE: ...I was going to the wrong job.

PARIS: You know, you being away so much growing up, that was hard.

CAGE: Yeah, I didn't want to be the dude that came in and left. So I had to figure out how I was, as a father, going to connect. And you would always like to hear me beatbox.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEATBOXING)

CAGE: So you used to sit up on my lap, and you would just bang your head trying to keep that beat going. I remember one time you was making a whole bunch of crazy sounds and I told you, I don't know what that is. But then I had to check myself and say, well, whatever you want to do, Nicole, that's what you do, OK? And now you go to sleep beatboxing. When you wake up, we're beatboxing - when we're cooking, when we're driving. So when you and I communicate with each other, we can do it by beats.

PARIS: Yes. Let's say, if I don't agree with something that you're doing and I feel angry...

Support for LAist comes from

CAGE: Why you just roll your eyes at me (laughter)?

PARIS: Because you make me mad. I'll do more of a base beat, kind of like (low-pitched beatboxing).

CAGE: Yeah. I can tell when you're not feeling good, 'cause your beats are - (low-pitched beatboxing) - real down.

PARIS: Yeah.

CAGE: But when you are feeling like, oh, I'm ready to take on the world, you (high-pitched beatboxing).

PARIS: Right. Pops, I love the bond that me and you share.

CAGE: You know, baby, it's something, Nicky. To see you go out into the world continually trying to be the best that you can be, I just absolutely love that about you. And as a father, that's all I can ask for.

Support for LAist comes from

(SOUNDBITE OF BEATBOXING)

INSKEEP: Ed Cage speaking and beatboxing with his daughter, Nicole Paris, in St. Louis. You can see an animation of this story at storycorps.org.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEATBOXING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.

Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.

We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.

Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.

Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist