Geo and Sabzi just dropped a new track, titled “Paul Valery” for download over on their Web site. You can get the track, which is about the future and supposedly samples Owl City (I wouldn’t know because I’ve never listened to Owl City out of loyalty to the Postal Service) by clicking on the widget below. And for the record, I must say it is great to hear a group from Seattle rip off a group that rips off a group from Seattle. Well played Blue Scholars, well played.
Tag Archives: Blue Scholars
A note from Sabzi about his new mixtape
Blue Scholars’ Sabzi dropped a mixtape Tuesday called 69ROLLS&OOF!. You can download it for free right here.He also wrote some words explaining the project. Here’s what he had to say:
People ask me why I care about making a mix of Hawaiian tunes. I tell them that it’s because Iʼm from Seattle.
I donʼt think I can apply the word ‘foreign’ to any cultural elements that have influenced me in becoming the person I am today.
Through years of, um, ‘nourishment’ from grinds, to listening to Jawaiian tunes as a teenager, to starting a group with a military kid from Honolulu, to learning the meaning of ‘false crack’ the hard way (ha!)… the spirit of Hawaii has long maintained a notable presence in my life.
And while Iʼm not Hawaiian, nor do I claim to be a local boy, I acknowledge and am thankful for the role that the Islands have played in the development of my cultural identity.
For me, a big part of the OOF! EP project was to experiment with a new way of identifying who we are and where we come from. It was an exercise in global cultural expression. Perhaps this is the age we can start believing that ‘where we are from’ is anywhere that has influenced us in becoming who we are. And perhaps our brothers and sisters are simply those who want to share this belief with us.
Watch out tho. When you embrace this idea, you start to think that home can be everywhere and your people could be everyone.
New People comin thru, son!
Respect to In4mation for the nifty ‘OOF!’ logo they designed and lent us, respect to Ohana for engineering the delicious shrimp tempura + diced spicy scallop + krab + masago sushi that they’ve dubbed the ‘69 Roll,’ and respect to you for reading this and listening to these tunes.
Mahalo.
saba / sabzi
Blue Scholars to become Barn Scholars tonight in Winthrop
I’m going to see Blue Scholars tonight and the show is not in Seattle. Actually the show is in the sleepy Eastern Washington town of Winthrop.
It should be a really interesting show considering the venue they will be performing is a barn (like I said, Winthrop is a sleepy, rural community) so it’s not necessarily a place where you’ll get a real hip-hop vibe and I am guessing Blue Scholars will be a little bit out of their element.
However, I’m not worried about the group underperforming because in the dozen or so times I have seen Blue Scholars Geo and Sabzi always bring it live. I am more interested in seeing the reaction hip-hop gets in this small town of less than 500 where ranch hands and cowboys are more common than bboys and popped collars.
Also, I am going to the show with a crew of 10 Wenatchee-area friends and none of them have seen Blue Scholars live or really spent much time with their music. So it will be fun to get their thoughts on the show.
One more thing to note is Eastern Washington’s lack of any music scene, which makes it sort of a big deal that a decent Seattle group is coming to town (or, in my case near town since I’ll be traveling about two hours from Wenatchee to get to Winthrop).
I plan to write about the show and my experience next week. If I remember to bring my camera I’ll probably shoot some video and take some pictures too and if there is time I might chat up Geo and Sabzi and ask them about their experience too.
