Volumes Hip Hop celebrates 5th anniversary with four-day music and comedy festival
In just five years, University of Georgia graduate Sam Lipkin took her self-published fanzine Volumes from a labor of love to support the Athens hip-hop scene to a media and event company that is the Classic City's most dedicated and consistent source of support for the genre and its artists.
Volumes' fifth anniversary will be celebrated with a four-day festival called Scrapstock 3, which is scheduled for Aug. 11-14 at multiple breweries in the Athens area. Presented with locally-based promoters Aubrey Entertainment, the fest will feature hip-hop performances, stand-up comedy and DJ sets.
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"Sam Lipkin is Volumes Hip Hop and Volumes Media," said Trevor Wiggins, best known by his stage name, Trvy. Lipkin and Wiggins met when they lived in Habersham County, and both became active in the Athens hip-hop scene after Lipkin graduated from UGA. Lipkin founded Volumes in 2017 as a way to document what was happening.
The friends moved into a house in Athens with several musicians, which Lipkin dubbed "Murder House" after her favorite season of the TV series "American Horror Story." Their house parties became so well-known for underground hip-hop performances that the 2018 documentary "Athens Rising: The Sicyon Project" devoted a section of the film to Murder House.
What began as a creative outlet for Lipkin soon became a much-needed source of reporting and promotion for Athens hip-hop, and Lipkin told the Banner-Herald that ATHfactor-Liberty Entertainment CEO Montu Miller opened up his book of contacts to help her get started. Gaining trust within the scene sometimes proved to be challenging, but didn't sway Lipkin from her goal.
"I spent the first six months going to every hip-hop show in town and putting my magazine in everybody's hands, but it wasn't always well-received," said Lipkin. "I'd have people ask me what I knew about hip-hop or bypass me entirely, but that doesn't happen so much anymore."
One year and 11 issues later, the nonstop grind ended up taking a physical toll, so Lipkin moved Volumes online where it became a resource for emerging artists to get press and to provide media services for everything from press kits to booking. The first Scrapstock event happened in 2018, and Volumes' monthly showcases have helped keep hip-hop in a visible state of progress in the Athens community.
The free Scraptock kick-off party at Akademia Brewing Co. on Aug. 11 will be hosted by Zack Hayes and opens with comedians Tim Chirikalov, Farrah Johnson, Ty Colgate, Liam Nelson and Miles Bunch. Music performances by Ant Da Ripper and Rich Music Cartel will follow, and a dance party with DJ Luke Highwalker will close out the night.
Aug. 12 will serve as day one of the Scrapstock festival and will take place at Creature Comforts with free performances by djbobfish, Cassie Chantel, Kxng Blanco, BlackNerdNinja, Toni Hunlo, Farin and Sajaad.
For day two, Southern Brewing Co. will host a ticketed concert on Aug. 13 with an eclectic mix of stand-up comedy, rock and hip-hop acts such as Trvy and The Enemy, Squallé, Tyl3r Davis, Shameless James, Tears for the Dying and Hollowbody. The day will conclude with a dance party featuring DJ JiiG.
Scrapstock 3 is set to end with a free industry mixer at Athentic Brewing Co. on Aug. 14. For tickets and additional details, visit https://ampl.ink/volumes.
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This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Volumes: How an Athens hip-hop zine grew into a 4-day music festival
