Did you hear THEESatisfaction signed to Sub Pop? That’s the word around Town, anyway — certainly news worthy of an eyebrow raise. A hearty and heartfelt congratulations to Cat and Stas from 206UP.COM!
Check them out with labelmates (!) Shabazz Palaces at Neumos on February 17. A series of incredibly dope show flyers like the one above can be viewed on THEESatisfaction’s blog, here.
The two best Blue Scholars shows I’d seen before Friday’s epic Seattle throw-down at New York City’s The Bowery Ballroom (check out Photo By Tone’s amazing pictures, here) were The Long March EP release party at Chop Suey in 2005, and the New Year’s Eve party at Neumos in the same year. Those concerts stood out because of the massive amount of energy their respective crowds brought, an element that’s absolutely vital to a successful live hip-hop show.
Blue Scholars was still in the natal stage when the ’05 show at Chop went down, with a small but devout following who went bananas that night for a group that would ultimately herald the beginning of a movement local music writers are now calling, “the new grunge.” It was my first time seeing them and I got caught up in the excitement. The New Year’s Eve show was nearly as animated, but probably much of it due to the jubilant atmosphere associated with the holiday.
The Bowery concert was different, however, for a couple of substantial reasons: First, Geo and Sabzi’s live presentation is incredibly refined these days. The setlist, the cuts between songs, how Geo moves across the stage, Sabzi’s well-executed stage dive near the end of the performance — everything is tighter, tuned-up, and built exclusively for keeping the audience engaged. I’ve seen much more well-known hip-hop acts execute shows that couldn’t touch what Blue Scholars are doing now; they’re becoming true entertainers.
Secondly, the venue couldn’t possibly get any bigger for this rap group. And by “bigger” I mean more relevant. New York City is the Mecca of hip-hop, we all know this. And for a group from Seattle, Washington to come into The Bowery Ballroom, a fairly prominent Manhattan venue, on a Friday night and sell out the joint…Well, has that ever been done before? Granted, I would estimate the crowd was at least fifty percent Townfolk, but it’s still an achievement considering notable groups from Brooklyn headline shows in New York venues half the size of Bowery and can’t rock them the way Blue Scholars did the well-known Lower East Side establishment.
I had a group of nine people with me, five of whom had never heard Blue Scholars’ music before, let alone seen them live, and they all came away impressed. While there was an enormous amount of 2-0-6 love flowing through the building, there was also an addictive energy — attributable wholly to Geo and Sabzi’s vibe — that swept up those who had no association with the area code. Blue Scholars did what so many other regionally-specific hip-hop groups strive to do: they represented their town to the fullest.
Check out the videos below (courtesy Youtube member, toneriggz):
What retirement? D. Black is back (this time with B. Brown) with The Blackest Brown EP, dropping Tuesday, 8/31. As it was on Ali’yah, positivity is the rule of the day on these three advanced tracks, but don’t expect anything soft. True, the beats are soulful, but they still knock hard. And Black’s ringing demand for a positive uprising in his community is more vigorous than ever. Hip-hop in Seattle needs D. Black — let’s hope he delays that early retirement.
Download “Special” (featuring Fatal Lucciauno), here.
Download “You’re The Light” (featuring SK), here.
Celebrate the release of The Blackest Brown EP at Neumos, on August 29th.
Cat and Stas draw inspiration from a vast and varied group of recording artists. This mixtape is the first in a series of tributes these ladies are paying to their creative muses. Click here or below to download the mixtape. My thoughts coming soon…
Watch THEESatisfaction get busy at the Ladies Night show at Neumos:
(Video jacked from THEESatisfaction’s blog, Black Weirdo.)
The truth about Shabazz Palaces is, no one totally knows the truth. We are only privy to what the progenitors of the project have allowed us to know. The music has, for the most part, been allowed to speak for itself. And speak it will at the group’s first show in The Six. Don’t you dare miss it.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 