Scribe fell in love with music at an early age and never fell out.
Inspired by Public Enemy and The Pharcyde (among others), in the golden
age of hip-hop, he started collecting records. Hip-hop (along with the
dancehall reggae and acid jazz of that time), led him back in time to
soul, funk, disco, r&b, roots reggae and jazz, and would later grow
into a musical repertoire spanning afrobeat, house, broken-beat, latin,
and his beloved 80's pop childhood roots.
Before he got his first set of 1200s, Scribe taught himself how to mix
on live radio at WOBC FM at Oberlin College, where he then began to cut
his teeth as a dj at house parties and campus events, eventually
opening for A Tribe Called Quest in front of 3,000 people. It was the
historic first show on their groundbreaking Low End Theory Tour. Back
in NYC after college, Scribe dabbled in hip-hop production under the
guidance of Russell Simmons' RUSH Producers Management, and deejayed
part-time, opening major concerts for A Tribe Called Quest again, and
Digable Planets.
Fast forward to present and DJ Scribe has been spinning full-time since
2002. In that time, he has developed numerous notable and acclaimed
residencies in NYC: 'Love Revolution' at Joe's Pub, a freeform soul night
that often featured Tortured Soul playing live, and guest djs such as
E-Man, Carol C. of Si*Sé, Will "Quantic" Holland, Qool DJ Marv,
and Ian Friday; Tag, in partnership with Wax Poetics Magazine, whose
unique format featured Scribe alternating every other record all night
with such legends as Yam Who?, Kool DJ Red Alert, Justin Strauss, Jazzy
Nice, Prince Language and Rich Medina; 'Stone Soup' in conjunction with
BBE Records; 'Soulnado', at the world-famous Knitting Factory, a joint
effort with DJ Busquelo, fusing the headsnapping broken beat drum
tracks of London's underground CO-OP scene with classic dancefloor jazz
(another UK staple) played live and fully improvised by rotating
top-notch instrumentalists; 'Nu-iSh', which began as a monthly party with
co-resident OP! at the Vault at Element, and partnered with a who's-who
of quality independent soul labels around the world, then growing into
a weekly music review column on Coolhunting.com, and concert presenter
for emerging artists like Heavy; and one of the most respected parties
at Miami's annual Winter Music Conference since 2006: the 'Raw Fusion' Miami party, which has featured the best of the best djs, Spinna,
Karizma, Simbad, Daz-I-Kue, Benji B, Phil Asher, Mad Mats, Freddie
Cruger aka Red Astaire, Karl Injex, and many more.
The original Raw Fusion party, founded by Mad Mats, has been going
strong since 1996 in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2002 Mats launched Raw
Fusion Recordings. And since 2005, Scribe has run their stateside
offices, as US Label Manager. In 2008, Scribe, with partner OP!,
founded a series of Raw Fusion parties at one of NYC's top dj venues,
APT, which featured guest djs such as Simbad, Daz, 7 Samurai, Probe
DMS, and live performances by Muhsinah, Kissey Asplund, Taylor
McFerrin, TK Wonder, Zaki Ibrahim, Stephanie McKay, Daru, Erik Rico,
Cecilia Stalin, and Ivana Santilli.
In May 2009, Scribe founded 'I Love Vinyl', an all-vinyl dance party
featuring the "Dream Team", six resident djs playing every party
together. Ge-Ology, OP!, The Twilite Tone, Amir (Kon & Amir), Jon
Oliver, and himself. The first party, at the Gallery at LPR (Le Poisson Rouge), was packed and jumping, and they have been ever since. In
conjunction with the party, Scribe started a vinyl appreciation page on
Facebook which attracted 10,000 fans in 10 days (now nearing 45K+). In
March 2010, 'I Love Vinyl: On the B-Side', the Brooklyn arm of the party,
debuted at the fantastic green venue Brooklyn Bowl. A few months later,
the I Love Vinyl Dream Team made an even bigger Brooklyn Debut, at the
season opener of Prospect Park's Celebrate Brooklyn free summer concert
series, where they headlined a gala afterparty for the Norah Jones
concert. Today the b-side party is held on second Saturdays at 70 N. 6th street in Williamsburg.
In addition to creating his own parties, Scribe has shared the marquee
at live music venues like the Highline Ballroom, Le Poisson Rouge,
SOB's and Joe's Pub with Lykke Li, Little Dragon, Antibalas, Chin Chin, Roy
Ayers, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Omar, Dwele, Les Nubians, Stephanie McKay,
Floetry, Alice Smith, and others; moved the crowd all over Western and
Eastern Europe; and traveled extensively within the US and Canada,
including multiple appearances at the annual Candela Art and Music
Festival in Puerto Rico, Miami's Winter Music Conference, and the
Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
Scribe has also done extensive studio work with DJ Spinna, including
mixing remixes he did for Michael Jackson and Shaun Escoffery, and The
Beyond Real Experience Vol.2 album for Spinna's Beyond Real label; as
well as producing and mixing much of Tortured Soul frontman Christian
Urich's soul project Cooly's Hot Box's album 'Take It', on Dome records,
including the UK classic "Make Me Happy".
DJ Scribe spins dynamic sets from the heart, ranging from deep soul to
dancefloor killers, acoustic jazz to glitch-hop and techno. But a list
of genres can't accurately describe his style, because for Scribe it's
all about the right feeling. And that's exactly what it is... the right
feeling. On a dancefloor near you.