Scribble Jam was Dope
 

Who here watched allot of Scribbles, and for those who have, who’s the best to ever grace the tourney?

Eyedea. Thesaurus. Nocandoo... Illmac. I unno, google it.

Eyedea was dope

Post more about a 8+ year old niche hip hop event

id be interested in seeing some links or mixtapes tho?

my boy showed me a scribble jam mixtape from a couple years ago and it was actually fire

You mean shit like MC Juice vs Eminem...that old shit is dope but the videos are grainy af.

not the best battle by any means but when people ask about scribble i immediately think of this one;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB0dhqR_BDc

Word. That’s all I really saw of it, had trouble finding links/wasn’t motivsted enough back in the day.

lol this is ok.....I hate when a battler trys to intimidate the other battler by getting in their face or touching them tho....just spit....scumbag

but don't they usually make compilation mixtapes from artists that were in the event tho too?

i like that they spit on beats tho....smack needs to start having battles on beats.....not all of their battles but itd be nice to hear some of them over music

It definitely feels dated now but it had a bravado about it. It was the underground less cringey 106 and park freestyle Friday’s lol

yea its hard to enjoy these w the current battle leagues out now being so so far ahead....plus freestyling is doodoo but word i agree at the time it was prolly cutting edge

I’ve seen pretty much every Scribble Jam from ‘97 until it lost its relevance due to the internet increasing popularity in similar fields.

Scribble was a lot more about the vibe, though, for a while. Like a get together of all the rappers not attached to major labels. That was a cool moment in Hip Hop history.

When freestyles went the way of the double time flow it started going downhill. Grind time and shit was real good for a minute and overlapped with those last decent Scribble festivals with Illmac and Franco. Think the Justice win was the last one I watched.

Things have evolved obviously, but it’s sorely missing an aspect those early battles had. There’s no repartee. No flipping shit around on people. That’s the essence of a lunchroom verbal sparring. These new 200 bar prewrittens about dude’s entire past has gotten stale.

Was there a defining moment or event where it became clear people were prewritting verses in Scribble or was that more just how the more current leagues came to be with set up battles?

Nah it definitely became a thing before Scribble faded out. Hell, a lot of Em’s battles had repeated lines or shit that ended up on SSLP.

Back then though it was heavily frowned upon. When prewriting became more accepted and out in the open is when I feel like the essence of the battles changed. Now it’s all about your performance. Your delivery of bars. Because everyone accepts you’re basically an actor performing a dialog.

i don't disagree with that but i guess i feel like the quality of content vs the impressiveness of coming up with ideas on the spot at the detriment of quality is a losing battle for the latter. like i have to listen to a bunch of garbage to finally hear u say something dope about dudes t shirt or a rebuttal to his last round OR i could just listen to awesome bars the entire time

Before it was openly accepted rappers had lines on standby. I used to keep 15-20 lines in my head that were generic and could fit into a situation like ammunition. Then there was what became known as filler.

I really feel like a verse full of filler relevant to the guy in your face beats even the best prewritten concept if it’s delivered in the middle of an obviously rehearsed verse.

but that's just semantics to me.........those are just written ? aka the best part

For sure. And that’s why we are where we are. Evolution isn’t always what’s best, it’s what ‘works.’ I’m sure some politicians would like to run clean campaigns but good luck winning without your ads about how candidate Q inhaled weed by accident in 1994.

You lose something by gaining more ‘quality’ content. I feel like older rappers and students of the game appreciate off the top content way more than writtens, but you give the crowd what it wants.

idk....i agree and disagree to an extent....my opinion of off the top freestlying is just....its a novelty...like hm ok...that was neat...but it never gets me as hype as when i hear a FIRE ass line that could have only been put together by taking the time to write it