Up in the sky box that is Body English's DJ booth, DJ Skribble's wide shoulders rock powerfully in time with the heavy hip-hop beat he's sending out. His thick arms could probably throw a mean 50-yard pass but his nimble fingers are too busy flitting over the knobs and buttons of his turntable equipment. His look is serious, mouth pulled tight in contemplation as his eyes scan the crowd below.
DJ Skribble has his mind on residency. Not only his new Saturday night spot at the Hard Rock's Body English, which commenced December 3, but on Nevada residency. Skribble is considering trading in his New York license plates to set up housekeeping in Sin City. Since his good friend DJ AM's contract came to an end, there has been a vacancy in Body English's coveted weekend slot, a vacancy that Skribble—or "just Scott" Ialacci —was eager to fill.
Born while his mother was visiting his father at Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts, Ialacci was raised in Queens, New York, in a home full of music. His father was a member of doo-wop groups the Velvetones and the Ovations, and it was he who put the love of funk, soul, and eventually hip-hop in his son's life. "He played a big part in getting me into music," Ialacci remembers.
He spent countless hours studying his neighborhood party DJ before playing his first gig at the age of 11. It was in 1981, right about when he turned 13, that he booked his first paying gig at the Rollercastle roller rink on Long Island with future Hip-Hop Hall of Famer Doug E. Fresh and future Grammy winner LL Cool J. "Soon I became the local neighborhood party DJ," he exclaims. So, playing alongside those legends, how did he do? Today, at age "over 30 and under 40," he looks back and confidently declares in a strong New York accent, "I sucked!"
But Ialacci had another love, one that would provide the inspiration for his stage name. "I was a graffiti artist. I used the New York City subway trains. I used the 5, the Js, the Ms, the B trains ..." Years later, Ialacci was accepted to the New York School of Visual Arts, the Fashion Institute of Technology and New York Institute of Technology but didn't have the money to attend. It was a pivotal moment, and one that pushed Ialacci off the path of becoming a graphic artist and DJ hobbiest and onto the tracks for him to go full steam into becoming DJ Skribble. "I just buried myself more in the music," he says.
"I was doing radio on Hot 97 with Dr. Dre and Ed Lover doing the morning show. My manager was also Dr. Dre and Ed Lover's manager. And in 1998, they asked me if I wanted to do (MTV's) Spring Break. So I went down there, did my thing with Brandy (Norwood) and The Backstreet Boys and the rest, thank God, is history! And I'm still able to do it to this day. It brought me to the whole world." Skribble makes it sound easy but a lot of hard work went into that big move and his résumé that now includes appearing on MTV for the better part of a decade.
Skribble appeared on numerous MTV Spring Breaks, as well as Daily Burn, The Global Groove, MTV Jams, Total Request Live and Fly 2K. "I was on TV so much it was crazy. That's how people in Wyoming know who I am! It's a beautiful thing." Skribble doesn't care much for where the music-video station has gone over the years. "Now it's really just reality television. They changed with the times. I'm very happy with the era of MTV that I came from."
Getting in on the reality TV craze himself, Skribble recently taught Brittny Gastineau of E's Gastineau Girls how to DJ. "Well, I tried to teach Brittny how to DJ .... She has the attention span of a gnat. She's a great girl, but I think she just wants to be Brittny." Maybe if she puts 20 years into it too? "Highly unlikely," he laughs.
Skribble's third love—his wife Dana aside—is cars, and with Skribble's Auto Spa in Queens, he's found a way to blend his loves for music and automobiles. Not a spa in the traditional sense, it's a custom shop where cars are outfitted in the shiniest, hottest rims and clearest, highest tech-audio systems. Should Skribble move to Vegas, we may see a Western offshoot spring up. Taking it a step further, Skribble will begin work next month as host of a new yet-to-be-named TV show featuring competition trucks.
The two-year contract with the Hard Rock came about after Skribble received numerous offers in Vegas. "I'm looking forward to [this residency]. That's one of the main reasons why I'm moving out there. If Maxim's having a party or a celebrity wants a party, I'm there. But I don't want to be greedy! I'm very fortunate and very happy to have been given the opportunity to play in such a legendary room and be 'The Guy' and become part of that family." And Skribble loves him some Body English. "Aw man, the intimacy, the legendary parties that go down in Vegas! It's got a name—a vibe. There's a pulse in the room even when there's no one in there. When you walk in there, you know you're gonna try to make the walls sweat come 2 o'clock in the morning!"
Despite the high turnover in his audience from week to week, Skribble doesn't want to bore regulars and locals. "I'm gonna keep it fresh. I want it to be different every week. I'm gonna be goddamned good, I'll tell you that!" To that end, since signing the deal, Skribble and his partner, DJ Sal Parm, have been putting their noses to the turntables, making new mash-ups to unleash on Vegas. On his self-titled album that came out on Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label in April, Skribble showed his range by putting out a compilation of dance music along with four original tracks. "I live in all these different worlds and I've been living in them for so many years. I've never pigeonholed myself into one style of music."
With him, Skribble brings his Serato Rane program, saving him from lugging 10 crates of vinyl around. "It's sad; I love vinyl. But it saves me $50,000 a year in excess baggage so I thank them every day. I thank the Rane Corporation and Serato. It's a shameless plug, but I do!"
He agrees when it's suggested that his and DJ AM's styles are similar and that his mash-up expertise was the clincher in his job interview. "I feel sometimes like we're more like big, mobile DJs. Some of the music you never would have thought you'd hear in a club a few years ago, like the stuff you'd hear at a sweet 16, but you drop it now and the people go nuts for it."
Skribble keenly understands the need to set himself apart from other DJs such as AM over at Pure—"There are only so many times you can play 'Living On A Prayer'"—and explains his fascination with blending genres. "When you keep reinventing [a song] and you put hip-hop over the rock beats, it just diversifies the people that come out to the clubs, and the crowd appreciates it that much more. ... "It's about going out, having fun, dancing and just playing everything that's gonna make you shake your ass. That's what it's all about."
Tonight, as he flows from the theme song from Rocky to Stevie Nicks to Bell Biv DeVoe to the Black Eyed Peas, it's clear that Skribble's work ethic and attitudes toward the venue and the crowd will be welcome here. As for moving cross-country and becoming a local yokel, "If I'm gonna be there every week, then I'm gonna be there every week. I'm glad I got to grow up in New York. I'm extremely proud. I'm not really leaving home, I'm just moving on."