The Groove Shack movie
In 1995 I was just beginning my exploration into actually making hip-hop. I grew up in Columbus, but was living in Springfield, Oh at the time going to school. Inkwel and I had formed Greenhouse Effect during late night freestyle sessions, been to the studio a couple times, but had yet to put out any recorded material or even do a real show. It would be quite some time before either of those things happened. At that time our main focus was to just be a part of it in any way possible, which was easy in Springfield since we lived there, but easier said than done in Columbus, which was 45-minutes away. As far as Columbus went, we were strictly observers.
Part of our experience at the time was visiting Columbus every chance we could get to catch shows and learn about the scene. Everything was so new then and the Columbus hip-hop scene was the closest any of us would get to being at a New York park jam. The scene was so raw; DJ battles, emcee battles, shows in weird places (because venues didn’t really allow local hip-hop in the doors in those days). I would come to Columbus to visit my family almost every other weekend and find time to dig for records there as well. One of the record stores I would visit was The Groove Shack.
Around that time, the public access channel started airing a show called The Groove Shack, a 30-minute show that featured the record stores’ monthly open mic. If you were just getting into hip-hop around 1993-1994 and turned on your television and saw a room of 100 people packed wall to wall, freestyling at a high level, and battling I guarantee you it would be something you would never forget. I know this was the case for me so I made up my mind then and there that I had to visit one of these open mics.