Blue Scholars Interview
By: Matt Anaya |
Thursday September 17, 2009 |
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hip-hop duo from Seattle |
| I quickly learned the Blue Scholars are not your typical classic rapper and producer combo. Emcee Geologic and DJ Sabzi are educated and articulate and are the polar opposite of most hip-hop acts I have come across. Fancy cars, nice watches, and extravagant vacation spots are not subjects the Blue Scholars rap about but like I said, these guys are different. The best hip-hop duo to ever come out of Seattle, the Blue Scholars like to make good music with a purpose, music that is fun to listen to and music that also makes you think. These guys don’t make music because they are good at it, they make it because it is a great way to have their voice and beliefs heard across the world. Not really from the slums like your average hip-hop story but from working class immigrant families. Sabzi graduated with an economics degree from “U Dub” (University of Washington) and Geo also went to UW but we’re still not sure if he graduated. After meeting in college they both realized they had similar aspirations and wanted to represent their heritage, their families, and their beliefs with their music. I got to chat with the duo and we talked about as much stuff as we could in 15 minutes and right away I found out these dudes are different, in a good way. Have you guys ever switched roles? Like Geo DJs and you rap? Sabzi: (Laughing) Um not really. I don’t have the voice for rap or the lyrical prowess so I stick to instrumentals. Maybe that will change. Where did you come up with the name Blue Scholars? Sabzi: It is a play on the term blue collar and we came up with it when we were in school. You guys went to school together right? Sabzi: Yup. Did you graduate? Sabzi: I did and I do not know if Geo technically did or not. What did you study? Sabzi: Economics. Tell me about your record deal. Why did you choose Duckdown Records? Sabzi: We chose Duckdown Records because we wanted an element on our team that had a long history in hip-hop and Duckdown is a brand and company that has put out classic hip-hop. It is based out of New York and it is good to be associated with them at that level. Was Duckdown your first choice? Sabzi: We had a number of different choices and options we were considering and we ended up choosing Duckdown. Whose idea was it to choose the record label instead of them choosing you? Sabzi: It was both of our ideas. We talked about it a lot. We discussed how we could release music and yet not have the restrictions. Are they helping you guys promote your album or just distribution? Sabzi: Yes, they are helping promote. Was it their idea to re-release Bayani (album prior to Ooof!)? Sabzi: Well it was more like something that was necessary because the original Bayani is out of print. When you transfer one record from one distribution to another distribution you have to re-release (your old stuff). It was more of a necessity. What does Ooof mean? Sabzi: That is all part of the whole experience, man. That is for people to go figure out. Geo: Well, if you grew up in Hawaii it is one of the first words you learn, while in kindergarten, at recess, or at school. I mean it’s also a bad word. I think the first thing when you have a cultural exchange, that’s the first thing they learn, besides food, is each other’s curse words. So it’s a whole cultural exchange thing going on. And ooof is currently what America is doing to Hawaii. What is America doing to Hawaii? Geo: They ooofing them. OK(?). So you guys have a large west coast fan base - how is it on the east coast? Geo: Oh yeah, we did NYC like three times in a week alone. We haven’t hit it this year and we actually do a lot of schools and the majority of the schools we play are actually outside our region. Schools are broke out here man, they don’t want to pay us nothing, except for U Dub (University of Washington), which we went to. We get out to the east coast a whole lot. First it’s west coast then east coast then Midwest and then after that down south. What were your expectations of Ooof? It started out pretty hot on iTunes. Sabzi: (Laughing) I did not expect that, honestly. I was like, ‘Oh, now we’re (number) three (on iTunes), oh, now we’re two!? Oh, OK!’ If you have no expectations then everything is better. Did the sales exceed your expectations? Sabzi: I would say there were no expectations. It neither exceeded or did not meet. There were no expectations to begin with. Geo: That would be a good question to ask Duckdown management and other people who pay attention to that stuff. Sabzi: That would be an interesting question for them that would be funny. Geo: That would be great. I think it is a lot better than not selling anything. It feels good to have music out, since it’s been so long. What’s the future hold for you guys? Sabzi: I think individual growth is something that has been happening anyway and as long as we continue to grow individually and maintain common interests I think we’ll always work together in some form. At least that’s what I think (laughing) I don’t know about Geo. Geo: For sure, for sure. I think Blue Scholars could be something that lasts forever or it could be something that dies tomorrow. This my dude right here (Sabzi) and we might work on something that might not be Blue Scholars in the future. We can ride it out to the end, it’s something that I think we found a good meeting point, we are still evolving. We have never been the types of dudes to plan our future and not be so dependent on it. We were never like ‘Oh we need to plan everything out’ or ‘Blue Scholars for life’ (laughing) and I don’t even approach my marriage like that. Our philosophy is take it a day at a time and focus on what we could be doing now. Any collaborations on this album? Sabzi: Um, we actually don’t on the album but there will be collaborations that sort of expand around the album. But not remixes of songs or something like that. Geo: Well we are big on collaborations but collaborations across different mediums. Sabzi: Oh yeah, forgot about that (laughing). Geo: I think people hear the word ‘collaboration’ and they think mashing up two different voices on the same track or musical collaborations. You can do collaborations with film, photo, photographers, designers, all types of stuff and that is the collaboration we’ve been more interested in, instead of forcing a musical collaboration for the sake of having a feature. Sabzi: Ooof is actually like the most collaborative project we have ever done. It has a lot of collaborators on it. If you follow the campaign there are a whole bunch of collaborators out in Hawaii that we work with. Tell me about the hip-hop community that you grew up in. Geo: Hawaii is really isolated and we didn’t really have concerts, at most we had community center stuff. But that changed when I came out to Seattle to see people like Hieroglyphics, RedMan, and The Roots in my late teens. Those were heavily touring but underground and that was the kind of live hip-hop I ingested. Are you guys excited to go back home for touring? Geo: YES! I cannot wait although it is finally starting to get pretty nice here in Seattle and I hate leaving when the weather is nice but it’s not going to be more beautiful where we’re going. Are you guys always working on new stuff? Sabzi: I guess we are always working on new stuff but we don’t have a studio to record on the road with. Geo: We brought the MBox and the microphone on the road and probably maybe pulled it out twice over the past year. I think we talk about music and talk about conceptualizing it more than we do making it. Because once we get home all that energy and all those conversations get all put together. What inspires you guys? World events? Personal things? Sabzi: Everything, all of the above. Geo: All of the above, and other music too. If you listen to our music it’s just as much informed by being aware of the history of music and what’s going on currently as much it is the stuff outside of music. Maybe the next group will make more of an effort to give shine to the things that you don’t normally hear in a typical hip-hop song, you know break up the rhythm and make something original and make something that is genuinely us. So you guys listen to everything? Sabzi: Whatever good music is, yes sir, everything. |
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