True to the Art

The hard work paid off and the event’s popularity expanded rapidly: the second Scribble Jam attracted two or three hundred people and by 2001, attendance was in the thousands. The event soon became a year-round commitment for everyone involved. G-Fresh and Accurso gathered sponsors, and attendees gladly paid $20 or $30 for tickets to the weekend-long extravaganza.

Each year, the festival had a similar format. The gathering always took place during the second or third week of August (except for the most recent Scribble Jam in 2008, which happened in October). The weekend would start on Thursday night with a meet-and-greet party held at a downtown Cincinnati venue like Top Cat’s or The Mockbee (both recently closed due to the poor economy).

While Mr. Dibbs became a major attraction as “host” of the event, he rarely actually spoke on the microphone. Dibbs spun records wildly, performing legendary trick-filled turntable routines that incorporated everything from cell phone samples to scratching with soda cans. In time, Scribble Jam’s concerts would attract larger acts like KRS One, Brand Nubian, Big Daddy Kane and MF Doom, the venue becoming not just the Midwest’s, but the nation’s premier live hip-hop performance destinations.

Scribble Jam was revered for celebrating hip-hop’s myriad cultural elements beyond rapping and DJs. As the emcees performed, B-boys and B-girls danced on linoleum, graffiti artists painted colorful pieces and beatboxers competed in groups of their own. It was chaotic, but attendees got a taste of all things hip-hop.

The famous Scribble Jam battles took place on Saturday and would begin with beatboxers mimicking drum machines and scratching sounds with their mouths. Then B-boys and B-girls would go toe-to-toe until only one group was left standing. In the turntable battle, DJs taunted each other with artful record spinning techniques and showcased their scratching skills. As evening drew near, emcee battles got under way with rappers trading face-melting rhymes in single-elimination rounds.

The contests had a genuine hip-hop feel, including potent disses, bravado, crowd participation and controversial results. By the ‘00s, competitors from all over the world were traveling to Cincinnati to contend for one of the few recognized bona fides in hip-hop – the title of Scribble Jam Champion.

29-year-old Dayton, Ohio resident Bryan Coogan, a.k.a. DJ SpareChange, will never forget his battle for the title in 2005. He had spent hours practicing on borrowed Technics SL-1200 turntables and Rane DJ mixers like the ones he knew would be provided at the festival. That year, he felt intimidated by the presence of more experienced artists such as Chicago native Skratch Bastard, who had taken home the championship the two previous years.

Beacham swells with pride when he thinks about the impact Scribble Jam has had on independent hip-hop. “You can’t even go to any other major hip-hop battle in the world where Scribble Jam is not a reference in some kind of way,” Beacham says. “We’re definitely the measuring stick and standard of hip-hop battles.”

Mildred Fallen, a music journalist and avid hip-hop fan from Cincinnati, has attended and enjoyed many Jams. She attributes Scribble’s popularity to Cincinnati’s lack of youth-oriented hip-hop music festivals. Fallen says that local venues had placed a sort of de facto ban on hip-hop after N.W.A. was fined a nominal amount following a performance at Riverfront Coliseum that authorities deemed “obscene.”

Though it had its fair share of drama behind the scenes, crime was kept to a minimum at the festival and serious violence was rare. The police occasionally showed up, but it was usually because a few graffiti writers had tagged restricted areas. Unlike many other hip-hop events, no one ever got killed or shot at Scribble Jam.

Scribble Jam 2003 photo courtesy of Nick Accurso.

Part two coming soon.

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