Scribble Jam was an annual hip hop music festival hosted in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

. Dubbed "America's largest hip hop festival", sort of like Woodstock. It was co-founded in 1996 by "Fat" Nick Accurso,Cincinnati Enquirer
/ref> and Jason Brunson, founders of

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

magazine ''Scribble'', and DJ

Mr Dibbs Mr. Dibbs (born Brad Forste) is an American disc jockey, DJ and hip hop production, hip hop producer. He is the Founder of 1200 HOBOS j/graff collective He was also one of the founders of Scribble Jam. Early life Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, F ...

, in the parking lot of a local nightclub. The following year's event benefitted from better publicity, and included MC, DJ and

breakdance Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

battles for the first time.Cincinnati
CityBeat In 2000, with the addition of new partners Tony Heitz and Pase Rock, the festival grew in popularity, as tens of thousands of hip hop fans flocked to its grounds in early August. It has been known to attract up to 20,000 fans.Dayton Daily News
/ref> In early April 2010, Scribble Jam organizer Kevin Beacham confirmed the persistent rumors that the event would no longer continue, citing the struggling economy and difficulty in securing funding as reasons."Scribble Jam in Flux", Urb Magazine
/ref> For most of its existence, Scribble Jam refused corporate sponsorship, which Accurso explained as an attempt to keep the festival from being run by "those who don't understand ip hopculture", adding that outside marketing or promotion would "defeat the purpose" of the festival. By 2003, however, the festival had started accepting some corporate sponsors; that year's event was backed by

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

/ Scion.

Competition

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 competition or

freestyle battle Freestyle is a style of improvisation, with or without instrumental beats (Mystrodamus), in which lyrics are recited with no particular subject or structure and with no prior memorization.Kevin Fitzgerald (director), '' Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme' ...

, the DJ battle or

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two rec ...

competition, the B-boy battle or breakdancing competition, the graff-writer or

competition, and the beatbox competition. Historically, the most popular of the competitions has been the freestyle battle, although all aspects of hip hop culture are well represented. The festival expanded its initial 1996 emcee and b-boy competitions to include the DJ competition in 1998. In 2003 the beatbox competition was added to the line-up. In the last five years of the festival a Production competition was added to the festival line-up, and there were performances by guests including KRS-One,Cincinnati
CityBeat

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

, Sage Francis,

Atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. ...

Blueprint A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets. Introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842, the process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited numbe ...

Eyedea Micheal David Larsen (November 9, 1981 – October 16, 2010), better known by his stage name Eyedea, was an American musician, rapper, and poet. He was a freestyle battle Freestyle is a style of improvisation, with or without instrumental ...

, Little Brother and Living Legends which greatly increased the festival's popularity.

Past winners

As of Scribble Jam's conclusion in 2008 there have been thirteen emcee champions, eleven DJ champions, thirteen B-Boy champions, and six beatbox champions.Scribble Jam Winners
/ref> Eyedea Scribble 99

Emcee battle

*1996 - Vendetta *1997 -

JUICE Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such ...

*1998 - Adeem *1999 -

*2000 - Sage Francis (as Xaul Zan) *2001 - Adeem *2002 - Mac Lethal *2003 - Rhymefest *2004 - illmaculate *2005 -

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

*2006 - The Saurus *2007 -

Nocando James McCall (born June 3, 1983), better known by his stage names Nocando and All City Jimmy, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California. He is the 2007 Scribble Jam champion and founder of Hellfyre Club. He is a member of hip hop gro ...

*2008 - The Saurus

DJ competition

*1998 - DJ Precyse *1999 - DJ Precyse *2000 - DJ Precyse *2001 - DJ Sprite *2002 - DJ Skwint *2003 - Skratch Bastid *2004 - Skratch Bastid *2005 - Spare Change *2006 - I-Dee *2007 - Skratch Bastid *2008 - DJ T-Lo

B-boy competition

*1996 - Forrest Getemgump (individual) *1997 - Self-Explanatory *1998 - Phase II *1999 - Midwest Junkie Cats (group with members of the Junkwartz and the Battlecats) *2000 - Junkwartz *2001 - Motion Disorderz *2002 - Motion Disorderz *2003 - Motion Disorderz *2004 - Motion Disorderz *2005 - Brickheadz *2006 - Brickheadz *2007 - Motion Disorderz *2008 - Brickheadz

Beatbox battle

*2003 - A Train *2004 - A Train *2005 - J.Beetz (from SICK.SOUND.SYNDROME) *2006 - DJ Snuggles *2007 - Poizunus *2008 - Scott Jackson There are only two production champions listed on the official Scribble Jam website: *2008 - Optiks *2007 - X:144

External links

Riding Shotgun-Life at Scribble Jam
h1>

References

{{Hip hop festival Music festivals in Ohio Hip hop music festivals in the United States Music festivals established in 1996 Music of Cincinnati Festivals in Cincinnati