Back When Rap Ruled – Scribble Jam 1999

Back in 1999 Scribble Jam was a big thing for us. We typically would make the drive because everybody was there and we could see match ups of our favorite artists, predominately underground locals or known emcees. I had seen local battles but the scribble jam battles were extremely hyped with energy. I know this battle was revisited recently after the tragic death of Eyedea, who, as we all know, subsequently housed the title in impression fashion. This was right at the peak of the Dose One movement which I was fully vested in. Most of the homies were less impressed than i was with his work, I always attributed it to people not like his voice and the fact he got a little spooky off the pookie. I was able to pick Dose’s brain on occasion and I learned he was a very smart guy. Dose wasn’t really into rap music as the rest of us but he was coming out with so many different projects, the Greenthink albums had been popular, cloud dead was starting to gain momentum and Dose had released a hip hop album with some pretty compelling production. And we can’t possibly forget the wide ranging momentum of the legendary Deep Puddle Dynamics

It’s still worth revisiting to see how the battles unfolded and how things have changed since 1999. This was during the new world era of getting access to underground music that was previously unavailable. EL P was dissing Sole and everything was really taking form. Still, My knowledge and exposure to Project Blowed and specifically P.E.A.C.E. was little at best. If they ran it back today I would be going all in on P.E.A.C.E.

the following video was shot by my boy, the legend, and Icon of hip-hop and the internet JAYBEE of WMSE’s Late Night Hype show which was the best underground hip hop radio in the history of broadcasting, largely due to the gawd Aaron Wade and my song requests