LEFT - rapper Geologic RIGHT- producer/DJ Sabzi
NOTE – Since we are featuring Bayani, an ealier release by Blue Scholars, we figured we’d link to an interview they did for Brolin Winning of MP3.com
MP3: So I just wanted to talk a bit about the new album. Bayani is coming out. This is your second full length and third release. What can you tell us about it?
Sabzi: Well what particular angle would you like to know about?
I mean, for the cats out there that are completely unfamiliar with you guys, how would you describe it?
Man, this is really—it’s a record where the beats and the rhymes really, really cooperate with one another. I mean, it was produced together. It’s a definite departure from the standard format of underground hip-hop records where you have somebody who goes around collecting beats and fits their hot 16s to it. You see what I’m saying?
Right, right. You’re not just like IM’ing each other tracks.
Yeah, right. The beats were crafted for the verse and the verses were crafted for the beats in that dialectical one DJ one MC relationship. “Bayani,” itself, is a word that we kind of made up that is a nod to both of our cultural and political heritages. Bayan in Tagalog means ‘the people’ and Bayan in Persian, which is an Arabic root word, means ‘utterance.’ So a quick translation would be like “voice of the people.” And the record itself is kind of a collection of stories…we have a song about the war in there, a song about the WTO protest but they’re all told from the perspective of different individuals. So the war song, for example, tells a story of what it’s like for a mother and child to be left at home while the husband goes off to fight. Oh, and there’s another one about what it’s like for an immigrant to come over here and try and find work.
Geologic: With this album, on one hand we wanted to kind of distinguish this body of work from the previous one, but at the same time not deviate too far and kind of build on the strengths of the first two releases. It’s pretty much a simple formula, man, just beats and rhymes and then obviously there’s the political angle that we’re trying to get at.
And then also the whole underlying thing about the Northwest coming up and we really identify with that. And so it’s—you’ll hear a lot more big ups to the area here, stories about what’s going on in our city and the region. And just in general I think it’s a more mature album. I’m glad that we didn’t come out the gate nationally with the first two records. It kind of gave us some time to polish up a little bit so that our actual first release nationally would be where we’re at now. I think it’s good timing for us and also for the scene.
Yeah, what is the scene like in Seattle? I mean, I know there’s a lot popping off but nobody has, since like Mix-A-Lot, nobody has really like blown up on a big scale from out of there. Is it real competitive? Is there a lot of other acts in the mix or what?
Oh, yeah. There’s a whole lot, man. And I think what typifies Seattle is that all these different folks that are hustling to make it, They’re not so much in competition with each other to be the ones to make out the town. If anything, we’re at competition with ourselves to just overcome a lot of barriers that we see in the town, one being that we’re geographically isolated from other parts of the country. Like you said, I mean, the major music industry doesn’t really look at Seattle as one of the priority markets.
But I think while some people might complain about that, I think it’s been a good thing. I think it’s given us an opportunity, all the folks here in the scene to try to establish more of our own identity and at the same time we kind of borrow from a lot of other areas. So up in Seattle you hear a lot of West Coast influence, a lot of East Coast influence, you know folks even from—even the hot sound from the South that’s out right now, there’s some folks that are doing that. But I think that’s all slowly coming together into what will eventually be a Seattle, I wouldn’t say a sound, like a signature sound of Seattle, but the fact that Seattle is so eclectic I think is going to be our identity when it’s all said and done.
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