Scribble Jam was an annual hip hop

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

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 line wit ...

. 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, in the

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

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 Scion may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities *Scion, a playable class in the game ''Path of Exile'' (2013) *Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series *Scions, an alien race in the video game ''Ba ...

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 Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. Hip hop culture is characterized by four key elements: rapping, DJing and turntablis ...

. 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 record ...

competition, the

B-boy 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 ...

battle or

breakdancing 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 ...

competition, the graff-writer or

competition, and the

beatbox Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

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 Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from New York City. He rose to prominence as part of ...

,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 Paul William "Sage" Francis (born November 18, 1976) is an American independent underground rapper from Providence, Rhode Island. He is the founder and CEO of Strange Famous Records. Early life and education Francis was born in Miami, Florida ...

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. A s ...

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 number ...

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 champion and songwriter from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Larsen had appear ...

, Mr Dibbs, Little Brother and

Living Legends Living Legend(s) may refer to: Film and television * "The Living Legend", a 1978 episode of ''Battlestar Galactica'' * "Living Legend" (''CSI''), a 2006 episode of ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' * ''Living Legend'' (audio drama), an audio d ...

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 Cold-pressed juice, 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 ...

*1998 - Adeem *1999 -

*2000 -

(as Xaul Zan) *2001 - Adeem *2002 -

Mac Lethal Mac or MAC most commonly refers to: * Mac (computer), a family of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * A variant of the word macaroni, mostly used in the name of the dish mac and cheese * Mac ...

*2003 -

Rhymefest Che Smith (born July 6, 1977), better known by his stage name Rhymefest, is an American rapper from Chicago whose first official album, ''Blue Collar'', was released in 2006. His prominent songwriting credits include co-writing Kanye West's "Je ...

*2004 -

illmaculate Gregory Poe (born February 4, 1986), better known by his stage name Illmaculate (a.k.a. Illmac), is an American battle rap Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more ...

*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 group ...

*2008 - The Saurus

DJ competition

*1998 - DJ Precyse *1999 - DJ Precyse *2000 - DJ Precyse *2001 - DJ Sprite *2002 - DJ Skwint *2003 -

Skratch Bastid Paul Murphy (born September 2, 1982), better known by his stage name Skratch Bastid, is a Canadian DJ and record producer. He is a three-time Scribble Jam DJ Battle winner. He is the first-ever Canadian DJ to be nominated for the Juno Award for Pro ...

*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 Poizunus is a Canadian beatboxer. History Since touring England in 2005 and performing at the Miami Winter Music Conference with artists DJ Craze and Killa Kela in 2006, Poizunus has been moderately successful both locally and internationally. R ...

*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