< an unprecedented student vote, Seattle-based hip-hop duo Blue Scholars will headline this year’s Spring Concert, as announced by Thursday morning’s all-campus email. The rest of the line-up will be announced later, the email said.
“I’m really excited,” Tim Wills ’12 said. “I’ve seen them in concert before and I’m excited for the rest of the student body to get to experience them.”
Formed in 2002, Blue Scholars informally term their music “cinema art rap,” according to the group’s website. Having performed with such superstars as Kanye West, Nas, and Common, the duo has released four full-length albums and three EPs.
Musically, MC Geologic’s lyrics often address social concerns like class and generational struggles, while DJ Sabzi draws his beats from Jamaican dancehall music as well as artist mix tapes, according to Bluescholars.com.
“There’s a movement in Seattle – and the whole Northwest really – towards a different type of music: socially conscious hip-hop,” Wills said. “It’s not just bogus words that rhyme together.”
Geologic and Sabzi first met as students at the University of Washington and have since resided in “the 98118, decreed the most ethnically diverse zip code in America by the 2010 Census,” according to Bluescholars.com. The Filipino rapper and Iranian DJ/producer “are dudes who nourish their bodies with Vietnamese coffee, Ethiopian injera, and steaming bowls of phở,” says their website.
At concerts, fans can expect to hear favorite songs like “No Rest for the Weary” and “North by Northwest,” but they can also look forward to something increasingly rare – genuine interaction with the performer.
“Typically at their concerts the MC and DJ will both come out into the crowd and talk to people,” Wills said.
The duo will be the third consecutive hip-hop artists to headline Spring Concert, following Wale in 2009 and Brother Ali last year. They will take the stage with an unprecedented amount of support from the Carleton student body, however, thanks to a first-ever online vote held during the first week of February. Blue Scholars beat out seven fellow artists ranging from afrobeat orchestra Antibalas to mashup kings Super Mash Bros – and they did so by no small margin, either.
“Apparently they won by a large difference,” Wills said. “Hopefully people will listen to a few of their songs before the show.”
The beloved spring term event will be held Saturday, May 21 behind the Rec Center.
