Scribble Jam 2000

Friday Night

The air was thick in what was soon to be the 5^th annual Scribble Jam. Having watched it grow into the event that it is today makes one marvel. The weekend opened up with a concert at Top-Cats featuring underground acts and DJ's from all over the country. John Doe of the 1200 HOBOs opened up doing a set with T-Dawg from D.C. Due to the overwhelming crowd we had to delay the performances slightly to make sure everyone was in. An All-star casts of performers representing various areas and styles of hip-hop commanded the crowds attention. 5 Deez (Cincinnati), Iskabibbles (Greenhouse Effect, Illogic & Plead Tha Ph5th from Cincy & Columbus), 502 Headz (Louisville), Truth Music Progeny (Storm Children, UnKut, Abiyah & Supapowers from Cincinnati) & Atmosphere (Slug, Eyedea & DJ Abilities). The Nobodies from North Carolina came without their group members having any identification and led to an altercation after the club let out that evening.

Saturday

The doors at The Ritz Night Club almost opened on time. Once again the line was thick. The parking lot was full of cars from all over the nation. All ethnicity's coming together for Scribble Jam 2000. Once inside the DJ's starting spinning and the breakers started breaking. While this was going on, out back Graffiti artist from all over the country were laying down some phenomenal pieces. They were painting the back of the Ritz Night Club. Vendors were out back as well as the Barbecue. Interstellar from D.C. performed 1st, ending a nice performance on a freestyle note. Shortly after, the B-Boy / B-Girl battle began. Nine crews in total with an all girl crew (except one guy) from Florida called "F**k Yo Momma", need I say more. The preliminary rounds were teasers. A lot of skill was displayed building up to the finals. DJ Top Speed & DJ Abilities had the honors of keeping the B-Boys & B-Girls moving on the floor. "F**k Yo Momma" was a lively bunch but went out to a much, much improved Jedi Imperialz crew from Nashville. The Battle went on until the semi-finals intermission and Artful Dodgers from Detroit took the floor and rocked it while judges tallied votes. The battles continued on with a new intensity. The most memorable part, which will be called "Taking It To The Head" where the two crews battling had a different member on each side do a different variation of head spin. It must have been about 12 consecutive head spin moves before they finished. The crowd went psychoticly wild. Scribble Jam 2000s B-Boy / B-Girl Competition went to the Junk Wartz from Minnesota. The action doesn't stop. Right after that battle, Code Red from Louisville did a hot track with T.M.P. artist Storm Children, UnKut & Supapowers called Bubblin' Wine. It had the whole crowd jumping. Now it's time for the DJ Battle. There were good competitors like Lynn Swan, DJ Spryte, Ragz and a few more. However, the focus was on 2 time Defending Champ DJ Precyse from Chicago and DJ Abilities from Minnesota. As expected, it boiled down to Precyse & Abilities. In the finals both had extraordinary sets. Abilities 1^st set was phenomenal. He ending by playing a vocal segment "now who is the faggot DJ" and followed that up with "DJ Precyse". Abilities had the record skip and fade out saying DJ Precyse. Precyse showed why he was the 2 time Scribble Jam champ. He rocked over Jay-Z & UGK - Big Pimpin with a beat juggle, then he cut flawlessly and vigorously over the instrumental. Abilities had a few minor scrubs in his last set and succumbed to DJ Precyse who achieved Scribble Jams first three-peat.

Now we are ready for the MC Battle. There was a lot of high hopes for last years winner Eyedea (Atmosphere), to repeat. He had just won the Rock Steady Anniversary MC Battle a couple of weeks prior. There were a lot of past competitors & winners returning (Adeem, Duece Leader, Skandal Da Ruckus Man, Optimus Prime, Unseen & many more). There were actually 91 MC's trying to compete for the prize! We gave all our previous winners & semi-finalists a bye in the elimination round (Mr. Vendetta, Dose One, Adeem, Slug & Eyedea) though not all competed. In a nutshell the elimination round was quite lengthy. After laboring through the elimination process 16 MC's where ready for battle. One of the highlights was an upset of Eyedea by Brother Ali of the same Atmosphere camp. It was close, Eyedea called Brother Ali an Albino Ape, but Brother Ali made a reference to Eyedea not having a tape out and won the crowd and the Judges. Lark, a female MC, was the 1^st female to advance into the competition rounds. Prime ripped through Sub-Con in one of the funniest rounds where Prime called Sub-Con a Bigfoot, dirty lumberjack, Chewbacca & an extra from Star Wars. Some how the last rounds were sped up which allowed each MC to go one round only. After the dust cleared the 4 MC's where Adeem, Blueprint, Brother Ali & Xaul Zan. Blueprint defeated Adeem and Xaul Zan took out Brother Ali by stating he had the Michael Jackson disease. Blueprint had a shot at bringing the title back to Ohio but Xaul Zan (Sage of Non-Prophets) won the Scribble Jam 2000 MC Battle. Unfortunately something always leaves a black eye on positive events. A cat from Wisconsin was beat down severely by Cincinnati Police officers around 2:45am after the event was well over. Witnesses claim the cat was beat mercilessly. It's a shame and all hope is that the victim is doing ok after the melee.

Sunday in the park

Sundays Jam in the park at Burnett Woods went over lovely. Food, drinks, music and people, what more can you ask for? Maybe some DJ's cutting it up and some more breaking taking place on the Gazebo. More performances from Espionage (Cleveland), Re-Al Entertainment (Detroit), Earatik Static (Chicago), Sounds Peace (N.Y & London) and Team Demolition from Virginia. The crowd was thick, supportive and everyone seemed to have a good time. They still do it out in the Park

Sunday Night

The wind-down party was just that. More phat performances at Top Cats: Mass Hysteria (Chicago), Sebutones & Sixtoo (Canada), and Anticon members like Dose One, Sol, Slug, etc…

4 elements reigned supreme that weekend. People from all over came together, peacefully for the most part, to partake in what was suppose to have died out years ago; HIP-HOP. Scribble Jam 2001 August 10^th-12^th in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ralo G-Fresh.