Interview with Blue Scholars - Podcast 42

what's good internet listeners this is uh sab z and geologic we represent blue scholars and mass live media in seattle and you're listening to sound scene revolution so don't

♪ music ♪

bringing you a christmas edition of the show which really isn't that christmas related but that's how it is this week we get to sit down with uh seattle's very own blue scholars their hip-hop act coming out of the pacific northwest which is home to hip-hop acts like sir mix-a-lot and sir mix-a-lot it's pretty much all they have up there thus far but according to these guys it's going to be a lot more popular in the upcoming weeks uh so we get to sit down with geologic and sobzy and talk to them about everything from starting their own record label to playing shows to touring the whole thing and uh it's a lot of fun so if you like hip-hop they're probably one of two hip-hop acts we've had on the show this far so if you like hip-hop you should definitely check it out and even if you don't maybe you'll start to like it uh first off we're going to play a track off of their lp it's self-titled it's the expanded re-release it was so popular they put more songs on it and sold it for more money so you should check it out um and we're going to play track four which is called motion movement off of uh their self-titled lp so check it out and uh we'll be back with more after this

♪ song played ♪

blue scholars and common market we all represent mass line media yeah they are here yeah all all three of us i just stepped out for a minute to get something from the car you guys got your own roomy shit it's nice back here you guys are blowing up uh not yet but hopefully not yet yeah doing okay so i guess first way easiest way to start off is just can you guys tell us about the band if you guys call it that the group i don't know how you guys got started all that uh blue scholars officially became a group i mean we'd been building for a minute but we did our first show in the summer of 2002 um portland oregon yeah prior to that was just maybe six to nine months uh chilling inside these bedroom attic makeshift studio thing with uh with a microphone hanging from the ceiling lamp with a pop guard made out of uh fabric softener you know things like that just messing around real makeshift style uh prior to that we actually met um in the student hip-hop organization of washington aka show at the university of washington we were both students there were two years apart um so i was like a junior when he was a freshman or no we're one year apart we're yeah we're just one year apart we're just one school year apart but we're actually two years apart age-wise because he skipped a grade because he's a genius not also not true i mean i skipped a grade but by no means am i a genius right right i think anybody skips a grade yeah i never skipped a grade so all you have to do is ask trust me really yeah i mean like if if like the administration doesn't hate you and you ask and there's some kind of a basis then you're fine yeah like being a genius yeah okay right i can feel like i'm a genius but anyway that's where we met actually the u-dub and i i want to highlight that because at the time in seattle there was a real lack of all-ages hip-hop shows after one of the main venues the rock candy in seattle got shut down in october 99 and so from late 99 to early 2000 that's when i met this dude um and a whole bunch of other hip-hop heads on the campus and we started promoting our own shows uh you know smaller shows actually the first show we did was the most deaf which was big but after that we did a bunch of smaller shows at a local all-ages venue and that's when we kind of got our foot in the seattle hip-hop scene we started meeting the other folks who were other mcs djs things like that so even though we were relatively new um as a group like 2002 and on we already had like three years of of experience um in the seattle hip-hop scene we knew the promoters we knew the venues and so people writing about music yeah journalists things like that other djs and so we when we finally did drop our album we had a whole network of people that would put on put us on for shows and so it wasn't completely started from scratch and so we come out of the seattle hip-hop scene um which is i wouldn't say it's one monolithic scene it's actually many different types of scenes geographically located in the 206 areas and so that's where we come from that's it's a little hard to understand from an outsider perspective but i think yeah makes some sense yeah so are there more all ages shows now have you guys helped with any of that like you mentioned the rock candy shut down like 99 yeah uh well i i would like to think that we helped catalyze a little little bit of that i mean we can't take all the credit but um a few years after show got started uh the vera project got started uh which is all ages volunteer run youth venue uh run for youth by youth and um they they do all types of shows they do um indie rock shows hardcore shows hip-hop shows whatnot and that's a beautiful thing there's also some hip-hop show or hip-hop venues that have been traditionally 21 and over started opening up like the chop suey new modes showbox all the big venues that a lot of times had only 21 and over and opened up a little bit and it's been a good thing for the scene and a relatively new thing only the last two or three years has it been like that cool now being from seattle i don't think i don't know myself at least when i first thing i think of seattle i don't think necessarily hip-hop yeah has that been hard for you guys to kind of like overcome at all or people do people not believe you're from that area that's uh that's like one of the most popular questions i'm sure it is so you know flannels doc martin doc martins and big butts yeah exactly in teen spirit yeah actually geo wrote a song about that in one year's song so it's true it's true man i mean it's a blessing and a curse it is because like the history has yet to be i mean i want to say the history has yet to be written but at the same time seattle actually has a very rich hip-hop history that's just not really known outside the town and right now there are producers like bean one jake one vitamin d folks who are actually producing for a lot of underground and some mainstream folks that are that claim seattle as a city um i mean i've heard seattle be called like a beat mecca but um as far as just a scene in general that it sort of includes you know the graphic artists graffiti uh emceeing djing b-boying all that stuff yeah b-boying is big out there right like the the the northwest in general has definitely been um on the verge of blowing up and so i mean we're just excited to see how it's how it's going to pan out and it's we feel very privileged to be in the position we're in now yeah i'm sure i mean if you guys feel it's all about to come to the forefront you're pretty well poised at this moment any other uh artists or anything from that area you want to talk about i mean i know obviously uh mass line media other artists from that oh right we should talk about of course well there's there's common market which is uh russion and myself um abyssinian creole which includes gabriel teodros and kings macoma gabriel uh has a solo record coming out on mass line in february um see who else is there there's like macklemore experience and then i'm in a group with macklemore and the two emcees from abyssinian creole called good medicine and we're recording right now hopefully hopefully we'll drop something within a year from now um kind of all mix mixing and matching um which is actually how the scene is yeah um even folks like like the old dominion crew that runs like 12 to 15 deep um which consists of mixing and matching different members you have boom bad project gray skull um norman um henry is a solo artist sleep uh whole bunch of folks then you got like damian black yeah d black um the sport and life records folks yeah who else cancer rising ricky farrow ricky farrow grinch um silent lambs project specs one yeah i could actually just keep going on there's a lot of different people in fact one one night we uh we hosted the local hip-hop radio show once as guests and we uh we were going to try and make it like dedicated to seattle so we sat down one night and wrote down like everyone's name that we knew did stuff and it would turn out to be like four full excel spreadsheets yeah it was like first last names phone numbers addresses the neighborhoods that they wrapped and everything was like wow it's actually it's cracking and i mean in a way it's cracking yeah if it didn't if it didn't rain so much maybe you'd see more people on the block hanging out yeah i'm sure the weather the climate's not very conducive to barbecues all year no no uh right on now i mentioned we talked a little bit about mass line media that's something you guys started right right it's like a artist run label type deal yeah yeah how did that all come together well it was like i mean blue scholars had been doing the blue scholars thing for a few years um me and rob put this record out about a year ago just in seattle and it's officially come out nationally internationally actually in october because it's been it's out in japan too um and it was like the i mean the three of us me geo ra and then other folks such as gabriel um were like we're all planning to work together at some point and we all had um we were also surrounded by a very supportive community of people that are involved in like the public education system and social services as well as like independent business yeah um and we had all been kind of working together but at the same time had our own separate camps and it was like why don't we just collectivize our resources to make things a lot more efficient so for example now like when we're going on the road we're really promoting not just like blue scholars not just common market or not even not even just the artists itself but like the town in a way yeah and we're trying to represent like in a in a community fashion for each other and really build something that that we're successful as a unit yeah how's the response been to that have people been pretty cool with it it's still young i mean the label didn't really exist until june so it's been only a few months but since then it's it's been it's been nice yeah i mean we we sold out the show box a couple times um which is the premier one of the premier mid-level venues in seattle it's got capacity of 1200 wow and um it's bigger than this place tonight yeah yeah i mean yeah bigger than this place um no not to knock this place but some places are just bigger than other places i would say the independent is kind of like similar to showbox though really i would have thought it was closer to newmo like newmo it's like half it's in between newmo and showbox it seems like none of y'all out there really know what we're talking about from seattle anyway but everyone from seattle just let's just say a thousand person venue which is um which is big for uh independent hip-hop yeah right it's true right on all right so we're going to take a quick little break right there in the interview um jump back to give you guys a little bit more music from the blue scholars so you can get a better taste of what they're like so if you're thinking maybe you'll keep listening but you're not sure maybe they're not good enough well maybe the song will convince you they're good enough and you'll keep listening or maybe you won't like it and you'll stop listening hopefully not that one but uh we're going to play uh track 12 off of their expanded lp which is called the av they also have an ep out which came out like a year ago but we don't have the ep we just have the lp we'll get the ep eventually but uh yeah it's called the av and we're going to go and we're going to finish the interview and it's pretty fun where they talk about beer and lots of different people from the pacific northwest who also rap if you're into that and you should be so check it out this is called the av and uh it's by the blue scholars

♪ song played ♪

meeting um we had been approached by uh we had i mean we had a meeting with atlantic we got approached by was it columbia i don't know i don't even want to say i mean like the thing is that like if it's not nothing it's a like a bunch of a and r's with their heads up their ass and the the game at that level as i understand it is very it's really shifting right now there's all types of people that are getting laid off there's all types of large companies that are downsizing um because the retail game is just not what it used to be so um now is not really the time for a single group to try and sign some kind of contract thinking that that's that's the way we're especially us like this we're not britney spears so like that's true you know we're definitely not going to be a priority at a place like universal right for example so that's why we kind of decided to do what we're doing now and it reflected in the contracts that a lot of them were offering up on the table yeah which meant that we were going to get like cents per record and things like that and that's just and also things like you know they they'd own the masters to the the album uh they could very much well have some creative direction yeah in us as a group and we're not trying to give up none of that so going this route an indie label i mean before that we were just a bunch of groups doing it super indie no label just diy completely top to bottom and then we realized that you know the a label that in which we're the ones running it would be the best look for us very cool yeah now um like you were talking about the anr reps where they just a lot of people would jump at an opportunity for any anr rep to like talk to them right well i mean most people don't understand like the reality of the music business then if they're jumping because that's that's in no way does that represent a victory i mean after after some mild experience just talking to people who operate at that level of the industry there's a lot of talk about what may or may not happen yeah but there's so few people that actually own the resources that are going to be poured into your record or have actual control over the distribution channels that will be you know used to sell the record that you don't know who it is that you're really talking to that actually has the authority to make those promises yeah and everyone else in between is just a big salesperson so like as opposed to putting your career in the hands of someone else who may or may not deliver on their word we might as well just do what we can on our own and we'll have more fun doing it and we'll kind of know where we stand and know where we're headed yeah oh yeah i don't think any one of you guys is going to lie to the other one and be like no no yeah you got you know you'll get the royalty check it's uh it's uh on the other side of the van i'll get it for you in a little bit here that's cool um i was i was reading up on you guys and you've had like a lot of real positive coverage from real big magazines even like vibe and spin and stuff is it is it all hard to kind of like keep a level head and all that and just think you know go through the day-to-day when you have these magazines that are saying like you know this is going to be the next big act and stuff like that uh yeah i think so you think it's hard to keep a level head i think it's easy especially when i show it to my mom and i'm like oh mom's look at this and she sees that little bitty it's like a little small thumbnail in the corner it's not even a real review when one of those like one paragraph reviews and she's like oh that's it and i'm like okay you're not on the cover but then i'm like thanks mom thanks for checking me on that you know i mean i we could really get celebratory on it we get a lot we got a lot of good feedback online people people like texted me on my phone like yo i i just saw you in this magazine and i think it's to me i think it's a bigger look for our supporters to to me it's like they're getting shine because all their support is going into this newfound visibility for us whereas for me like my my joy is not from the fame that's going to come from this it's from seeing the people react to it and so if if that's what a magazine does when the magazine comes out they're like okay i guess i can like you i guess you're all right the magazine said you were yeah yeah right they feel they're like oh i liked you before but now i really like you yeah now it's okay to say it so it's more more for them than than us really right on right on um one of the things i want to talk about is you mentioned uh a couple of different times in different songs about people uh i guess the phrase one of them that's used is pseudo revolutionaries like people who are willing to talk a certain game and don't really follow up do you guys feel that you do more than just like the music to follow i mean obviously you have you're running your own independent label we'd like to think so we're trying but you know i wrote that and it's i wrote that to be critical of folks who who talk theory but don't practice you know but that's also something that i that's a criticism that i direct outwards but also inwards as well you know like i could very well be a pseudo revolutionary if i don't check myself and my principles and see what i'm writing for and so everything that we do as a group and everything i do individually everything sazi does individually we try to uh check each other on that and we we're surrounded by a group of folks that i think are on one hand comfortable enough around us but on the other hand um know what we're all about and what we're trying to project in our music and so they'll they'll check us real quick i mean we just we just went and bought like you know a modest amount of new gear for the winter and we went home and we heard from the homie who was like questioning us like do you really need that stuff you know so it's just being surrounded by folks who are critical i think keeps keeps us level-headed and we also know that um there's actual organizers out there in the community like we we try to organize around the music you know try to put try to politicize folks through the music through the culture but there are actual people doing groundwork like actual educational work workshops going out to rallies um teachings and we're surrounded by those folks and so um when i when i criticize other folks it's because i know firsthand what it's like to be a political organizer uh myself and also being surrounded like my wife is a organizer um for for like women's rights uh particularly within the philippine struggle things like that so i could i could smell it from from a mile away when somebody's all talk very cool um i want to ask you guys because obviously where you guys are coming from uh in your hip-hop scene is a lot different than i guess where people would view it on the national level if there's one thing you could change about like the current state of like mainstream or national white hip-hop what would you guys do that we could change about it yeah i don't know man it's it's difficult yeah instead of answering some grandiose thing i just wish like all all fundamental and principle-based criticisms aside because because it's a very like it's an extension of an obsolete economy and it it like you can't criticize like misogyny and hip-hop without looking at the misogyny that is cultured in america you know what i'm saying or the or the materialistic behavior or or any of that stuff as something that's like unique to hip-hop music or just shows its face there it's all very intertwined and rooted to a long history of oppression and struggle i just really wish that there was better music really i mean like if there was like some better songs it wouldn't be so bad but like the songs really are bad yeah like there's a lot of bad music and that's a very very superficial one but it's one that doesn't give me a headache so right now no fair enough it's true come in come in where's the lock come in come in i was just trying to steal your beer that was funny we're not drinking this beer i'm serious you guys should just throw the yeah you guys should just throw the beer on the crowd dude that's like don't lob it either like overhand throw it it'd be fucking tight you'll be everyone will remember this show forever i think the the homie whose spot we stayed at maybe he'll help us finish that yeah he probably will actually really we should just give it to him as a gift i don't really condone the habit of drinking no no i think it i think it's very destructive i think drinking in a safe environment with people that you're comfortable with is is a cool thing fair enough um i guess we're gonna start wrapping it up you guys got anything that you want to plug i mean anyone you want to shout out uh websites anything yeah masslinemedia.com go there yeah we have updated blogs every day and um a forum where people talk about music um uh yeah music like hip-hop music fashion and television and other such opiates as well as politics yeah so so holler there's a video forum too where people post videos and like really yeah it's filth it's tight if you like blue by the way filthy is a seattle word for dope so we say it's filth actually i just say i'll i just say but most people say it's filthy i say filth yeah i'll pick up from here on out we'll make sure you get credit yeah the royalty blue scholars out and all the mass line media artists have um websites as well um blue scholars.com common market music.com not common market.com because you'll you'll come up with some other stuff um and ab creole a b the word creole.com uh that's gay gabriel teodos's website right now with his partner kings macoma and uh and yara bravo.com that's a yeah we just did a show we just did a show with the homies um oneself um that we enjoyed doing the show with them at the show box or one below he's the homie too one below check out one below from ann arbor michigan or not from ann arbor yeah but he reps when does this when does this go out probably tuesday he reps michigan i was about to say if anybody um is on the west coast all right this will this will probably actually go out before that show but our homie one below is actually doing shows with was with an old group binary star for the first time in like six years um they're doing some shows on the west coast but you could delete that because well i'll be there i'll check i know and no one else yeah all right cool well i want to thank you guys a lot for taking the time and uh thanks rich good luck with the shit thank you man thanks for having us thank you internets all right so that wraps up the interview for this week uh we don't have a contest this week because when we went and we talked to the blue scholars in san francisco all of their merchandise and gear had been shipped up back to seattle already because they had wrapped up all their shows and common market was supposed to be on tour with uh dan the automator so they had no blue scholars gear they had some common market stuff but it wouldn't have really made sense to give away common market stuff at a blue scholars interview so we decided to scrap it but really when you guys get to listen to good quality hip-hop isn't everyone kind of a winner a little bit i think so so if you guys get the chance check them out uh mass line media blue scholars dot com uh they have a bunch of stuff to sell on their website and they're pretty cool so check them out and uh we're gonna take you guys out of here this week with one last track off of their expanded lp this was not on the original lp so you guys are lucky we're giving you something extra i guess uh it's the track called no rest for the weary it's by the blue scholars hope you guys enjoy it have a great week and uh see you next week

♪ song played ♪