Blue Scholars - Bayani
www.bluescholars.com - $$$(1/2)
Review by - Nin
In an industry typified by attention-deficiency, what was de rigueur yesterday is invariably outmoded today. Politics and hip-hop, once virtually inextricable from one another, now make awkward bedfellows in the popular consciousness, devoured by the maw of atomistic individualism that defines capitalistic ideology. Hip-hop, as a mirror of prevalent socio-economic currents, is perhaps more earnest and transparent than any other form of sonic art, a ductile, amorphous mass that absorbs and reflects economic truths of its age. Now firmly in the grasp of the status quo, the incandescent indignation of its earliest practitioners has been dulled and sterilized, and its polyglot diversity has been rendered subject to the voice of the marketplace. Money is the lingua franca, consumption is the ideology, art is the canvas. A Marxist nightmare, in short.
It takes a group like Blue Scholars to repair the communitarian threads that cutthroat corporate, materialist culture has unravelled, to reaffirm the fact that hip-hop is beyond a means of individual expression, it is also a legitimate community, a firmament upon which revolt can be coordinated. This is not to say that I am a communist, far from it, but I am not averse to the concepts of solidarity, fraternity and consciousness that Blue Scholars espouse. While Geologic’s loquacious, meticulously constructed verses can prove to be somewhat trying on extended exposure (his deliberate elocution comes off somewhat monochromatic in spots), his rapid-fire effusiveness conveys elegantly-expressed tracts on social upheaval, unity and integrity in the face of widespread serialization/alienation/indifference, plagues of the urban experience that hip-hop is an appendage of. The message is one of luminescent hope in the midst of urban blight, a clarion call for communal spirit amongst a progressively diffuse audience.
Accenting these eloquent manifestos are some of the finest beats to grace a rap record this year, suffused with fearsome, leviathan bass, piquant rhythms and a pensive yet rousing sense of tunefulness. Anchored by a gargantuan low-end, Sabzi’s exquisitely thoughtful sonic potpourris are ceaselessly entrancing, saturated with a sense of melody that is undoubtedly schooled by a genuine understanding of music’s ineffable, intangible dimensions. This is a very strong record, and while it might (much like this review) seem redolent with the selfsame “self-righteousness” that is at odds with popular sentiment in this day and age, it effortlessly walks the trapeze between overtly didactic diatribe and pointed, informed commentary.
