February 01, 2005
Getting Schooled
Photo by Rachel Cendana courtesy of the Blue Scholars
By Janna Chan for AsianAvenue.com
It’s a rainy, overcast, and bone chilling December afternoon in Seattle. Cars whiz by J-walking pedestrians on a sparse Chinatown street and teenagers duck into the neighborhood diner to keep their designer bags dry. Two guys sitting at a center table in the diner briefly look up from their chicken curry rice concoctions to wave me over. I look long and hard at these two everyday looking guys. Both are dressed in baggy, fairly average looking, clothes and neither have what the kids call “bling” around their necks or on their fingers. These guys are supposed to be Seattle’s latest hip hop sensation?—Absolutely. In every sense of the word. Meet the Blue Scholars.
It’s not unusual for people to pass George Quibuyen, 24, aka MC Geologic, and Alexei Saba Mohajerjasbi, 23, aka DJ Sabzi, everyday without knowing who they are. Yes, music from their debut, self-titled album is played on the popular independent radio station, KEXP, everyday. And yes, they did just win the Seattle Weekly’s best album of 2004 award—but these two still have a knack at blending in with the crowd. Maybe that has something to do with their namesake: The Blue Scholars. The duo came up with the name as an homage to the blue collar roots of their families and the fact that both were privileged enough to get college educations. The result has been an album that chronicles the life and experiences of the working class and paints a vivid picture of passion, adolescence, love and friendship on a universal level. The trick, according to Geo, is using material that everyone can wrap their minds around. “The term mass media, mainstream, implies that it reaches the widest audience possible,” said Geo while finishing up a mouthful of food. “In order to do this you have to touch on universal themes that can reach out to various communities and crowds. You would be surprised at how interwoven all of our experiences are.”
On their 43 minute long, 12 track album Geo, the lone MC in the group, does not wax poetic about huge global affairs or big booties. Instead, he talks about living off the fat of the land, giving back to the community and about what it’s like to grow up in the city. On the track, “Bruise Brothers,” Geo raps: “Blue is for the color of the collar of my mother and father plus the scholars that we be/ The blue is for the nighttime mood swinging tune of every bluesman singing what it’s like to not be free.” In this song, Geo is talking about his pursuit of hip hop and having to prove himself to producers and other musicians. This is his version of honest hard work in relation to that of his parents. “I touch upon a lot of complex issues in my lyrics and as long as they are accessible it’s all good,” said Geo. “Accessibility is key because if people don’t understand where you’re coming from it defeats the purpose. I think that the more you tap into your life experiences you’ll find people who can relate to it indirectly.”
Geo and Sabzi first met while attending the University of Washington in 1999. Both of them were heavily involved in the Student Hip Hop Organization of Washington (SHOW) and had individual dreams of becoming an MC and a DJ. At the time, Geo was studying for a double major in history and American ethnic studies and was a spoken word artist for the Isangmahal Filipino arts collective. Sabzi was going for an economics degree and was just experimenting with scratching records and mixing beats together. It wasn’t until late 2001 that the Blue Scholars started taking shape, but even then the idea of a career in hip hop was far-fetched for both of them.
“I have a feeling that technically what I was doing was a hobby, but deep down we wanted to be better musicians,” said Sabzi. “We were taking baby steps because we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”
By the summer of 2002, the Blue Scholars got booked for their very first live show in a dingy Portland bar and rocked out for approximately 20 people. (Coincidentally their performance was part of the Urban Architecture Tour sponsored by AsianAvenue). But, like the saying goes, it’s not the size that matters. “That first show was a career changing moment,” said Geo. “We felt good performing in front of people and I think it was the fact that we now had an outlet to share our creative material with the community that boosted our incentive to improve.” After taking a long drag from his cigarette Sabzi added, “I started to manually play beats on the turntable and Geo would MC over it and that was well received by audiences as well as with hip hop nerds who understood the craft. We started to purposefully analyze music and that was a major factor in our metamorphosis into musicians.”
It’s been nearly three years since this duo played their first gig and they have managed an impressive level of local success in a city that hasn’t celebrated any hip hop musician since Sir-Mix-A-Lot. The guys ended 2004 with a gig opening for De La Soul and filmed a video for their single, “Freewheelin.” The guys have sold more than 3,000 albums since February 2004 (all of which are made to order by the duo themselves) and, did I mention, that they are, and have always been, sans-record label? The two admit that not having a label behind them is a conscious decision on their part to avoid losing touch with their fans and music. Sure, that’s what they all say—except it seems like these two actually mean it.
“Our goal, first and foremost, is to create a quality product,” said Sabzi. “We want to live up to our potential as musicians. We didn’t set out to specifically sell 10,000 units to these people because doing so would influence the creation of our music; and the only thing that we want to do that is our lives and the music we listen to.” Geo added, “I mean, of course we want our music to reach a mass audience, but we are genuinely weary of anyone who might want to market us as something we’re not. I think we’re both happy to keep producing and pressing our own albums so long as we can continue to make good music.” Their blue collar brethren would have it no other way.
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The Blue Scholars will be playing at the Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, at the Chop Suey in Seattle on Feb. 11 and at the University of Pennsylvania on Feb. 18. For more concert dates and information about the Blue Scholars check out their Website, www.bluescholars.com
Posted by MissPicklez at February 1, 2005 05:01 PM