Audio Blue Scholars
Bayani

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. Sabzi, I wanted to talk about your production style in terms of both what kind of gear you're using to make your tracks but also like who influences you on the beats? Well as far as gear goes, I use Acid, the program and not the drug. I could never afford to get hardware. So I ended up just downloading and bootlegging software back when I was like 18, 19. So I use that, Sound Forge, then turntables and synthesizers. And then as far as whoever has influenced me, man, I don't know. It was like—I could list down the classics like Premier, Pete Rock, Diamond D. There's definitely a section of my production that sort of harkens back to that early '90s classic sound and then Dilla definitely on a more modern era. Yeah, for sure. But then like even things that are not musical like Cuban revolutionary poster art or Chinese propaganda even or some of the local urban artists that are here in Seattle or even like Aphex Twin and Kruder & Dorfmeister, which I don't bump so much off as often anymore but I used to. You guys are known for your political content and whatnot in a lot of your songs and talking about sort of standing up for the people and criticizing, critiquing, the government and whatnot. Do you feel like—I mean, on one hand there are a lot of, I don't know about a lot, but there is a very vocal sort of political community in hip-hop. But on the other hand, the stuff that gets played, the stuff that's on the radio and the TV, pretty much never touches on that.

Do you think that with the growing sort of discontent and frustration about the war and all the shadiness in the government, do you think that more people are going to be coming around and sort of being open for that type of sound? Geologic: Yeah, I think so. And I think it's a matter of finding that balance where you're not really like alienating folks who aren't ready to hear a message and then kind of—but then at the same time not backing down, like if there's a message to be said, it needs to be said. So we just kind of find a way to bring the two together.

The beats are kind of laid back, mellow and then really accessible and inviting, whereas the lyrics might be a little more, like you said, a little more sharp in its critique. And I think when you combine the two it has a potential to reach a lot more people than it would if it was just like all either way. The imbalance that I see, like political music either has to be completely, on one hand, really rugged and hard and confrontational, we see a lot of that, or it has to be like really soft, mellow, earthy, organic hippy type, like, love music, you know. Right. And we're trying to find—we kind of reject both of, not reject out right, but we… Trying to find a middle ground. Yeah, man. Definitely. Kind of like the vibe you get from A Tribe Called Quest record but with the militancy you find in the lyrics of Public Enemy or something like that. Sabzi: We hope and we think that we are touching on just straight human qualities that really apply to everybody. You know, I don't think there's very many people that are like, "Oh, justice, I don't care about that. I care about my ass," which is—I mean, the reason you can shake your ass is because you have the freedom to do so. Yeah, good point. You know, it's like we live in a world where everything has been commodified so it doesn't really make sense, if you think about it, to say that, like, being politically aware or having an opinion about how you should live you life is a niche market. You see? Totally. But I mean, I totally feel you because you're right, like, it has been divided into markets and hopefully we can cultivate one, mostly in the younger folks. Like, I'm much more interested in gaining listeners who are like ages 12 to 18. If you're 26 and you like our music, cool. If not, then you're too old already anyway. Absolutely, man. I also wanted to ask you, Geologic, I mean, I know you rep for the Northwest and you also rep for the common people, the workingman out there. Being that you're Filipino, I wanted to ask you about being an Asian and specifically Filipino in hip-hop. Other than a few select cats and a lot of the DJ guys especially out in the Bay where I'm at, they're not real super represented out there. Do you feel like you have to represent for the Filipino community as well? Oh, yeah. Definitely, man. At one point in my life I would have been like, "No, man. I'm just an MC. See me for who I am as an MC." But you've got to be real about it and everywhere you go if you're not—if they don't know what you are, particularly if you're not black or at this point even white, with a lot of white underground MCs that folks can identify with, folks, they want to know who you are, especially actually young Filipino people themselves.

And I had to remember when I was growing up what it was—there was no Filipino MCs anywhere, underground, over ground, TV, radio, nothing except the homies in our own neighborhoods really. And I'm just trying to think like what it would have been like to grow up and see cats who look like me and come from my community doing the same thing, and I would have gotten really excited about it.

So I feel like I can't lose sight of that, especially now after we've rocked a handful of shows and I see and have talked to young Filipino kids coming up just really feeling proud to be represented. And yeah, man, more power, man, let's keep it moving. Yeah, I hear you. Definitely. Right on. And now what did you think when Rawkus stepped to you guys? Sabzi: Well we kind of stepped to them, too. So I guess, like, at the time [our label] Mass Line was looking for a collaborative deal of some sort. Like, Rhymesayers just signed an upstream thing with Warner.

Yeah, but stuff like that has been going on for a minute and we had actually sat down and spoken with a number of different labels to work out something similar just because we had gotten to the point where Blue Scholars itself had a heck of a fan base and a record sales history that we could leverage something like that and we could work with a label that knew that they didn't have to spend a lot of time in the artist development area, which majors isn't—or at least people with money are spending less and less time doing. They're just wanting to invest in something they can distribute.

So I mean, I was happy when it worked out because that's what we were looking for and it seems that it's a good fit considering that, I mean, everyone that we're working with used to be listening to Mos Def and Talib and Pharaohe Monch back in the late '90s.

And now Rawkus is—I really think that the people who are expecting them to do what they did before are correct and yet not at the same time. Like, there's not going to be another Mos, there's not going to be another Talib, because that was back then. And I'm more concerned personally with the younger folks. And I don't know how familiar with Rawkus young folks are. Right, right. I think some are but I think that they have—right now, the label has the potential to do for them what it did for some of us back in like '98 and '99. If somebody had told you that five years ago when you were just starting to do stuff that your third release was going to be coming out nationally through Rawkus, what would you have thought back then? Geologic: Oh, man, I would have told you like, "Yeah, whatever, man." I would have brushed it off actually. I never really would have thought it was going to occur. But at the same time around five years ago when we first started taking it real serious, this is exactly the type of thing that we had in mind eventually.

And so although a lot of the success that we've had, you know, a lot of it was unexpected. I didn't want to feel like we were entitled to it or we deserved it but if we were going to deserve it that it would come through grinding it out. And the main approach that we knew that we wanted to do from the very start, which is different from a lot of folks in the town or in any town that's not getting as much attention as the big markets, it's to build the local scene first. That's what's up. So yeah, I just got one more question for you and I'll let you go. Just for the people out there that—for the fans that are out there that know you or are up on you guys but also for like the potential new fans that are going to be listening to your stuff and reading this interview, what would you like to say to the people out there? Sabzi: Man, I don't know. Check us out. I think you'll like it. Geologic: Oh, man. I would like to say first of all that hip-hop is not dead. In spite of what you might be hearing everywhere. But I understand the sentiment behind that particularly when you see the sad state of hip-hop in the mainstream. Part of me feels like if it's not dead, then it's definitely dying and dying quickly.

I don't think it's beyond repair and not to say like we're coming to save it or nothing. But we're definitely trying to hold it down in a way that's different from what you see on the mainstream. And I'm not saying that hip-hop was all good back in the day but at least back in the day you had like a diversity of sound. More variety. Yeah. And so we want that to happen again, but it's not going to happen if we wait for the artists themselves to do it, if we wait for the label to do it, the media to do it. The only people that can really change it is the fans, the listeners, the hip-hop heads themselves, demanding that variety, demanding that more voices be heard.

And so anyone that's out there that hasn't heard Blue Scholars give us a chance and for those that are already familiar with our work—because I see this whole thing in the underground a lot where a lot of fans will latch onto a group to the point where they feel like it's their own thing and then if it gets big they feel like, "Oh, I can't really ride for that no more," and part of is understandable because I know I was that 17 to 19-year old fan who did the same thing. I rocked a J5 shirt and then I see some square on the street wearing it and I'm like, "Oh, I can't really f*** with J5 no more."

So I would just hope that people look beyond this whole like image and identity and actually accept—see the music and the message for what it is and make their own decisions rather than being swayed either by the media or their peers or what not. Right on. Well, yo, it's good talking to you guys. Good luck with the album and everything. Thank you, bro. Peace.