Blue Scholars

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Blue Scholars

Geologic of Blue Scholars
Background information
Origin Seattle, Washington, USA
Genres Alternative hip hop
Years active 2002-present
Labels Mass Line Media
Associated acts Common Market
Website Official Site
Members
Geologic
Sabzi

Blue Scholars is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington. The duo was created in 2002 while the members, Geologic (Geo) and Sabzi, were a part of The SHOW (Student Hip Hop Organization of Washington) at the University of Washington (Seattle). The group consists of one DJ, Sabzi (Saba Mohajerjasbi) and one MC, Geologic (George Quibuyen).

The name "Blue Scholars" is a play on the term "blue collar," which is an idiom for workers who often earn hourly wages for manual labor. Their music and lyrics often focus on struggles between socioeconomic classes, challenging authority and youth empowerment, as evidenced in the songs "Opening Salvo," "Blink," and "Commencement Day." These themes are often specifically addressed in relation to the Seattle region, as in "Southside Revival", "North by Northwest", and "The Ave."

Contents

[edit] History

The duo has performed across the United States and made appearances at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in 2005, 2006, and 2008, and Bumbershoot opening for Kanye West in 2006. They have opened for and shared stages with such artists as De La Soul, Slick Rick, Wordsworth, Kanye West, Hieroglyphics, Immortal Technique, The Coup and Masta Ace.[1][2]On September 6th, 2008 they played at the Gorge Amphitheater, Washington date of Rock the Bells, the international hip hop touring festival, sharing the main stage with A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Mos Def, The Pharcyde, MURS, Jedi Mind Tricks, De La Soul, and Little Brother. [3]

In 2006, the Blue Scholars received top honors in the hip hop category of the Seattle Weekly's Music Awards Poll, and were also the top vote-getters overall; in earlier years, they had been recognized in the categories of Best Hip-hop Artist, Best Local Single, and Best Album.[4][5][6][7]

The music video released for the song "Back Home" makes a very personal call to support the US troops by bringing them back from Iraq. The video, produced by Sabzi's brother Zia, has received critical praise from blogs across the web.[8] The video was followed by the November 2007 release of a video for "Joe Metro," which features Geo riding Metro's route 48 around Seattle and walking the city streets.[9]

On the group's website, they announced that 2 EPs would be released before the end of the 2007: Joe Metro EP and Butter & Gun$ EP (essentially an EP for the song "Loyalty"). Each features the EP's "title" track, a remix of the "title" track, videos, and a few other remixes and new songs.[10]

In 2007, the duo presented and headlined several shows for a Seattle hip-hop showcase they dubbed "The Program".[11] The 5 shows all took place at local venue Neumos from December 18 through December 22, 2007. All shows were closed out by Blue Scholars with several other local groups performing each night, including Common Market, The Saturday Knights, Dyme Def, and many others. The lineup for the first show of "The Program" included a "Secret Special Guest". The group opted to hold a series of shows instead of a single year-end celebration in order to showcase the best that hip-hop has to offer and because they were "sick of working on New Year's Eve."[12]

Also in 2007, Geologic, representing Blue Scholars, went on tour with Kiwi and guests to promote the Stop the Killings Tour to bring awareness to the deaths of regular people in the Philippines.

[edit] Members

Sabzi of Blue Scholars.

Geologic (born George Quibuyen; also known as Prometheus Brown, Geo) is the vocalist for the Blue Scholars and has also performed as a spoken word poet. In the 2007-2008 city-wide election for Seattle's Poet Populist Quibuyen placed sixth with ninety-six write-in votes, the highest total for a write-in candidate in the nine year history of the competition;[13] although, the record was subsequently broken by Seattle poet Ananda Osel in the 2008-2009 election.[14]

The son of Filipino immigrants, Quibuyen lived in various locations along the west coast and Hawaii as a child until his family settled in Bremerton, Washington. Geologic attended the University of Washington and worked as a community organizer with isangmahal arts kollective, both experiences which have influenced his lyrics.[15][16]

Sabzi (born Alexei Saba Mohajerjasbi; also known as Saba) is an Iranian American jazz-trained pianist and previously performed with and wrote music for a punk and ska band before his work on beats and turntables with the Blue Scholars.[1] He attended Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Washington before attending the University of Washington. He met Geologic as a result of an initiative to foster more youth-accessible hip hop on campus and throughout Seattle.[17][16] Sabzi is also the DJ for Common Market, another Seattle hip hop duo. Sabzi is a Bahá'í by religion, and their album Bayani contains a Bahá'í prayer chanted by Behnam Khoshkhoo as the first track. The songs on Bayani start with track number two.

[edit] Record Label

Opting to create their own record label rather than sign with an existing company, Blue Scholars members Geologic and Sabzi, along with MCs RA Scion of Common Market and Gabriel Teodros, launched MassLine Media [1] in 2006.[18] The label's mission statement includes the goal of using hip hop as a means of grassroots community organizing and youth outreach. MassLine entered a joint venture with legendary hip hop label Rawkus Records in 2007 for the release of the June 12, 2007 release of their new album Bayani; the name derives its meaning from two different languages. In Tagalog it literally means "heroes of the people" and in Persian "Bayan" means "the Word." The June 12 release also commemorated the anniversary of the Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain in 1898. In July, 2009, Blue Scholars worked out a distribution relationship with Seattle coffee chain Cafe Vita and a record deal with Duck Down Records in which the label signed to the band.[19]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Videography

[edit] See also

[edit] Popular Culture

In Valve Software's game "Half Life 2: Episode 2" the Blue Scholars' name can be seen on the front of several radio boxes throughout the game along with the radio station "FM 89.50". It is also on an audio receiver in Kleiner's lab, above the camera screens. This is because Sabzi is the cousin of Dhabih Eng an artist for Valve. 89.5 FM is a reference to the frequency of Seattle, WA radio station KNHC-FM. It is one of the few radio stations in the country that is run entirely by high school students, in this case the students of Nathan Hale High School.

The song "Sagaba Remix" is featured in the Xbox 360 video game, Project Gotham Racing 4.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Sasquatch! Music Festival review
  2. ^ Blue Scholars —The Long March | Three Imaginary Girls
  3. ^ http://guerillaunion.com/rockthebells/settimes/george.jpg [Rock The Bells] George, Washington Set Times
  4. ^ Seattle Weekly music winners
  5. ^ Seattle Weekly music awards, May 2005
  6. ^ Seattle Weekly art critics' awards, August 2005
  7. ^ Seattle Weekly 2006 Music Awards poll, May 2006
  8. ^ Analog Giant: New video by the Blue Scholars
  9. ^ "Joe Metro" video. MTVu.com. Last accessed November 19, 2007.
  10. ^ "Friday mixdown." Bluescholars.com. September 30, 2007.
  11. ^ "Get With The Program." The Stranger Blog (aka "Slog"). October 4, 2007.
  12. ^ "The Program." Bluescholars.com, posted by Sabzi. October 4, 2007.
  13. ^ http://www.seattlepoetpopulist.org/vote.htm 2007-2008 Poet Populist vote totals
  14. ^ 2008-2009 vote totals http://www.poetpopulist.org/current-poet.php
  15. ^ Blue Scholars official bios
  16. ^ a b Seattle Times entertainment blog, June 2006
  17. ^ Seattle Weekly music section, November 2005
  18. ^ The Stranger, June 22-28, 2006
  19. ^ Seattle Weekly: Blue Scholars and the New Deal, http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-08-05/music/blue-scholars-and-the-new-deal/, retrieved 2009-08-13 

[edit] External links

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