Blue Scholars

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The Blue Scholars

Blue Scholars is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington. Formed in 2002, the group consists of one DJ, Sabzi, and one MC, Geologic. 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]

They currently have a music video released for the song "Freewheelin'" describing 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 2007.^[11]