Words: Michael Robinowitz 

Photo: Ryan Lewis 

The Seattle duo of DJ Sabzi (Saba Mohajerjasbi), and MC Geologic (George Quibuyen) has acted as nurturer and keeper of an emerging Northwest hip-hop scene for over six years.  Sabzi, whose family fled the 1979 Iranian Revolution, looks at his music not within the prism of just hip-hop, but what its purpose is in serving the community, to propel a cause higher than mere grooves.

“What truly makes the music is a lot more than how it's made,” says Sabzi.  “My main concern is making music that is relevant.  If I had to write country songs, to reach the youth, then I would do that because I still follow in that demographic.”

Sabzi’s jazz-piano training and a keen ear for eclectic calypso, funk, blues, '70s soul samples fuel the group's hooks.

“I’ll be inspired by a lot of different stuff,” he says.  “If I had a list of influences they would be all of the West Coast gangsta artists of the early '90s, to Lookout Records, to Queen, or Charles Mingus, maybe Aphex Twins.  If you would jumble all of that up, that would represent all of my main influences.”

Along with the Chicago’s Rhymefest, the Scholars are part of a cresting movement to take back hip-hop by diligent, thought-provoking artists aming to bring back not just old school morals but the creativity that the genre desperately needs. At the heart of the Scholars' most recent release, Bayani, is “50k Deep,” a track about the International Money Fund protests in Seattle in 1999.  With lyrics like “a hail of rubber bullets hit teens and old men/I admit, had to split when the first gas canisters hit/felt it burn in my eyes, nose, and lips,” the protests might seem a more innocent time, back before 9/11 when, ironically, more young people were politically aware and motivated to change the world than today.

“The thing that really jumped out when that track finished, was that one Sublime song ‘April 29, 1992’  about the Los Angeles riots, how they went out and got free TV’s and clothes,” Sabzi explains.  “They broke it down like it wasn’t about all the things they said on TV.  It was about the relationship between police and citizens.  I look at it as a song that is supposed to take a key moment and provide some insight to it, from the perspective of someone who was actually there, that people can learn from.  It's one of many things.  I don’t think that pre-9/11 people were more innocent and today they are more scattered.”

Yet distractions by today’s youth pile high enough to allow them to forget what power they wield:

“There has been a large segment of the population that has always been doing progressive work for change.  And there is another segment of the population that works against that.  And then there is the majority of the people that are distracted by the things that they own and . . . reality television.

“That’s why we make the music we make,” he adds.  “Because we are trying to get media to get into those hearts and minds and wake up the people that are asleep.  And be a soundtrack to the people that are already on the same page.  Those dynamics are going to exist for quite a while until things get so bad that people can no longer hide behind having their basic necessities taken care of. Like once your food is taken away, you are going to have admit things are messed up.  You are going to have join the rest of the world.”

bluescholars.com