Scribble Jam

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Scribble Jam
Location(s) Cincinnati, Ohio
Years active 1996-present
Date(s) August
Genre(s) Hip hop
Website

Scribble Jam, touted as "America's Largest Hip Hop Festival", has come to be seen as just that. It is the largest public display of underground hip hop that is available in the United States. Co-founded in 1996 by Scribble Magazine and DJ Mr. Dibbs of Atmosphere, the event has called Cincinnati, Ohio home for the last 10 years. Recently, the festival has grown in popularity and now sees tens of thousands of hip hop fans flock to its grounds in early August. The centerpieces of the Scribble Jam festival are the five competitions, four of which are designed to highlight the main aspects of hip hop culture. They include the emcee or freestyle battle, the DJ or scratching competition, the B-boy or breakdancing competition, and the graff-writer or graffiti competition. Recently a Beatbox Battle has been introduced and become a fan favorite. Historically, the most popular of the competitions has been the freestyle battle, although all aspects of the hip hop culture are well represented. In the last five years, guest performances have come to the forefront, bringing in great numbers of fans. Performers include hip-hop greats such as Big Daddy Kane, Lyrics Born, Masta Ace, Prince Paul, Wordsworth, Blueprint, Brother Ali, Slug, Eyedea, MURS, DJ Vajra, The Animal Crackers, Glue, and many more.

Contents

[edit] History

The first ever Scribble Jam, held in 1996, was merely a small, parking lot party that held a quantity as few as fifty people. By the second year, however, word was quick to spread about this uprising event and more hip-hop fans came to be a part of it. Since then, every following year seems to bring about twice as many spectators, participants, and performers to the now-heavily established forum.

Some of hip hop's most well-known and well-respected stars got their start at Scribble Jam. The most famous Scribble Jam competitor of all time is Eminem. He participated in the 1997 emcee battle, managing to make his way to the semifinals along with MC Juice, Rhymefest and Dose One. In the semifinal rounds, he was defeated by both Rhymefest and Juice. Despite his good showing, Eminem has been criticized for using the same "freestyle" punchlines in both the 1997 Rap Olympics and the 1997 Scribble Jam competition.

Artists associated with underground record labels such as Rhymesayers Entertainment, anticon., and Molemen Records have thrived in the Scribble Jam environment; capturing titles in the competitions, performing songs off of their albums, and selling their albums at booths. The record labels themselves have used Scribble Jam as a way to find up and coming artists. Rhymesayers Entertainment as a whole has benefited from Scribble Jam more than any other record label. This seems only fair, considering that current members of the record label were instrumental in first getting Scribble Jam off the ground. Mr. Dibbs, one of the co-founders of Scribble Jam, is now a Rhymesayers artist.

[edit] The Emcee Battle

The emcee battle at Scribble Jam is arguably the most competitive in the country. Since its inception, the number of emcees eager to participate has increased immensely. In the early years, any MC with enough credentials to register, who could manage to show up on the correct day would be allowed to enter. More recently, regional qualifiers have been instituted, where emcees are forced to defeat the other battlers in their region before they can participate in the Scribble Jam festival in Cincinnati.

[edit] Past Winners

[edit] Emcee Battle

[edit] DJ Competition

  • 2006- DJ I-Dee
  • 2005- Spare Change
  • 2004- Skratch Bastid
  • 2003- Skratch Bastid
  • 2002- DJ Squint
  • 2001- DJ Spyder
  • 2000- DJ Precyse
  • 1999- DJ Precyse
  • 1998- DJ Precyse

[edit] B-boy Competition

  • 2006- Brickheadz
  • 2005- Brickheadz
  • 2004- ???????
  • 2003- Motion Disorderz
  • 2002- Motion Disorderz
  • 2001- Milwaukee's Best
  • 2000- Junkwartz
  • 1999- Midwest Junkie Cats (Group with members of the Junkwartz and the Battlecats)
  • 1998- Phase II
  • 1997- Self-Explanatory
  • 1996- Forrest Gump (Individual)

[edit] Beatbox Battle

  • 2006- DJ Snuggles
  • 2004- A Train

[edit] Trivia

  • Justice became the only non-American citizen to win the much-coveted Emcee Battle in 2005. Hailing from Australia, he travelled a fourteen-hour flight from Melbourne and managed to claim the 10,000$ grand prize.
  • Adeem, the only two-time Scribble Jam champion of the emcee battle thus far, is still not regarded as the "greatest" emcee battle champion of all time in the event's history. Interestingly, most Scribble fans gravitate towards current champions. Apparently, the style of the emcees become incredibly more intricate as the years progress. For example, the first ever champion Vendetta of 1996, has a very different, more basic style reflecting that particular time and age in hip-hop battles. Compare this to the latest champion Thesaurus (2006), and what a decade of evolution in freestyling can do to the older, obsolete generation (respectively).
  • In 2003, veteran rapper Deuce Leader jumped off the stage during a battle against legend MC Juice, being the only known emcee to do so in the middle of a bout. He suffered minor bone fragments and a casted leg, since the crowd refused to catch his overweight body.
  • Veteran Rhymefest competed in both Scribble Jam 1997 and 2003. This is the largest gap between Scribble Jam entrances in any of the champions, as he managed to become the MC Battle Winner on 2003.
  • 2004 iLLmacuLate was the youngest MC to win the Emcee Battle.
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