Blue Scholars

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The Blue Scholars

Blue Scholars is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington. The birth of the group began while the members were all a part of The SHOW (Student Hip Hop Organization of Washington) at the University of Washington (Seattle). As The SHOW co-founder Marc Matsui encouraged two other members to work together, Blue Scholars would then be formed in 2002. The group consists of one DJ, Sabzi and one MC, Geologic. Matsui would become their manager and be the driving force behind their initial success. Their music and lyrics often focus on challenging authority and youth empowerment, as evidenced in the songs "Blink" and "Commencement Day," and on the Seattle region, as in "Southside Revival" and "The Ave."

The duo has performed across the United States and made appearances at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in 2005 and 2006. They have opened for and shared stages with such artists as De La Soul, Slick Rick, Kanye West, Immortal Technique, The Coup, Masta Ace, Mos Def and Little Brother.^[1]^[2]

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.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

The music video released for the song "Freewheelin'" describes the days of early hip hop.[1]

1 Members
2 Record Label
3 Discography
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Members

Geologic (born George Quibuyen), also known as Prometheus Brown, is the vocalist for the Blue Scholars and has also performed as a spoken word poet. The son of Filipino immigrants, he 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.^[7]^[8]

Sabzi (born Alexei Saba Mohajerjasbi) 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 too attended the University of Washington and met Geologic as a result of an initiative to foster more youth-accessible hip hop on campus and throughout Seattle.^[9]^[8] Sabzi is also the DJ for Common Market, another Seattle hip hop duo.

[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 Mass Line Records [2] in 2006.^[10] The label's mission statement includes the goal of using hip hop as a means of grassroots community organizing and youth outreach. Mass Line is set to release a Blue Scholars album in May of 2007 called Bayani; the name derives it's meaning from two different languages. In Tagalog it literally means "heroes of the people" and in Farsi "Bayan" means "the Word."

Geo and Sabzi through Massline Media will release their second full length album "Bayani" with Rawkus Records, an underground label based out of New York City, on June 12, 2007.