We met at the Eritrean restaurant on 20th Avenue South and South
Jackson Street called Hidmo in the middle of the day. At the table sat
eight rappers, two journalists, one producer, and a manager. A plate of
black cookies moved around the table; the sunny sounds of Bole2Harlem
played on the stereo; outside snow fell softly.
What brought these people to the roundtable was The Program, a
five-day hiphop bonanza, a first of its kind, a celebration of the
region’s hiphop culture. Blue Scholars organized the event and headline
all five nights.
Back in 1989, Sub Pop threw a weekend-long festival of Seattle’s
rock bands—from Cat Butt to Love Battery—called the Ultra
Lame Fest. The Program is doing something similar with hiphop. As with
the Sub Pop show at CoCA, it is a statement of confidence, a statement
of arrival.
The roundtable:
Geologic, MC of Blue Scholars
Syndel, Sirens Echo from Portland
Vitamin D, Seattle’s number-one producer
Karim, the Boom Bap Project, formerly of
Seattle now in
San Francisco
Can-U, rapper from Tacoma
Neema, Unexpected Arrival of Bellevue
Grynch, rapper from Ballard
RA Scion, MC of Seattle’s Common Market
Kyle Kraft, general manager of Vancouver’s
Battle Axe
Records
Thig Natural, rapper for emerging Seattle
crew the
Physics
THE YOUTH
The Stranger: Is our scene a young scene?
Vitamin D: Yeah, it’s young and getting
younger.
Geologic: They’re all in high school.
Vitamin D: I don’t even know anyone in the hiphop
shows. Nobody my age comes out to the shows. [Vitamin is in his
30s.]
Karim: In the Bay, it’s a way older crowd.
RA Scion: Why do you think that is? Why is the
scene younger?
Vitamin D: Technology probably. We didn’t even come
up on the internet. You know, to us that was some expensive, privileged
shit. That’s how my generation still kind of looks at it, especially in
the hood. I mean, the older cats don’t got Gmail; they don’t know
nothing about Gmail. And we’re not on these chat rooms.
I won’t be
on this—what do they call it?—206 something.
Karim: 206Proof.
Vitamin D: And the young guys are the ones that
promote and stuff, so there’s definitely a generation gap.
OUR SOUND
Vitamin D: I don’t think Seattle has a sound at
all. I think the whole thing is like us not really being influenced by
our own sound. Our problem is we’re going for everyone else’s
sound.
The Stranger: You gotta elaborate on that.
Vitamin D: I’m coming from the studio perspective
so I’m kind of watching everybody do their thing. We have a diverse
sound—it seems like everyone’s going in different directions, and
I don’t hear it. I don’t hear a Seattle beat. Even in the records and
stuff, it just sounds like we’re emulating other people. That’s what
I’m saying. And I’m guilty of it too. I’m not excluding myself.
RA Scion: To me it’s like this: We hear the beat
and think, that’s a Vitamin beat, or that’s a Jake One beat. And so
then we automatically identify it as Northwest, but I don’t know what
it is about the sound that we are identifying as a Northwest sound.
Karim: I’m sorry, but you listen to Barfly [of the
Saturday Knights and Nite Owls] or a Grayskul record, for instance, I
don’t think anything in the game sounds like that. It’s gloomy. I think
the gloominess definitely has something to do with where we are. When I
wake up every morning in the Bay and it’s sunny and I find my demeanor
is a little happier—I swear to god.
RA Scion: I’m particularly interested in the
concept [of a regional sound] because I’m not from the Northwest and
this opens up a whole new challenge for an MC because hiphop is so
geocentric. And it’s like you have to choose an area to rep, right?
Basically, you gotta carry some location—an area code—on
your back, right? So, how many people here are not from Seattle?
[Almost everyone raises a hand.] Yeah, you see? Neither is
Death Cab for Cutie, right? You see what I’m getting at?
OUR COMMUNITY
Syndel: I get what Vitamin D is saying, that
everyone is trying to sound like other people, but I still try to
support local guys [in Portland] as much as possible. I’ll go to their
shows and parties and support even if I don’t like their music, just to
support.
Vitamin D: Is that keeping it real though?
Geologic: You could do both. You could go to the
show and then tell them afterward they need to work on it. I appreciate
the people who’ve done that for me.
Vitamin D: But why should I give support?
Syndel: I’m not saying you should support;
that’s something that I do. I think if everyone supported
everyone it’d be a better community.
Vitamin D: If everyone chose who they supported, I
think the community would be better. Our filter system is gone. You
know what I mean? There used to be a filter system. At I-Spy [a dead,
downtown club], I used to see fools get thrown offstage. Suckers were
told: “Get off the mic, punk!” It used to go down like that. That kind
of changed around 2000. There wasn’t consequences for wackness.
Karim: There’s no parameters on what it takes to be
an artist these days. You go and download Fruity Loops or something,
you got your little mic, you mail yourself a CD in a
padded
envelope like, “Hey, I got myself a
record label.”
Grynch: There was this dude selling his CD the
other day; it looked really nice. I was like, “Okay, it looks cool,” so
I bought it, popped it in, and I was like, this guy recorded this on a
computer mic or something. It just killed me.
Can-U: You have to pay your dues but sometimes you
just get hated on. For no reason, people will neglect you. And for
some, it’s been like that since day one. But then eventually somebody
tells them about you, things improve, and you get on the bandwagon.
RA Scion: Out of one side of our mouth we talk
about no opportunities, and the solution to that is create your own
opportunity, and then we got these young kids that throw their own
shows and we’re like, fuck that, you can’t do a show because you
suck.
SMALL TOWNS
Kraft: We’re talking about Seattle, Portland,
Vancouver, but we’re leaving out a lot of towns that actually started
coming up regionally, like…
Geologic: Bend, Oregon!
Kraft: Yeah—you could go to Bend, Oregon, and
it’ll pop. At small-ass tertiary markets, I feel bad sending these guys
out there and they come back like, yo, 200 people came out and we got
our rent paid.
Geologic: That’s something that people in the
bigger cities do not recognize at all. They hear Bellingham: “Oh you’re
going to Bellingham? Good luck with that show.” And I’m like, dude it’s
our sixth time back this year; this show’s going to be packed.
Karim: Sure, but it doesn’t extend to Bozeman
[Montana].
Kraft: It doesn’t?
Karim: Bozeman sucks.
THE BORDER
Karim: Boom Bap Project and Grayskul [were on tour]
and we didn’t get our permits for a show in Vancouver. We went up there
with a shitload of merch in our car and lied about what we were doing.
The border people looked in the car, the saw the merch, and then went
online to the Rhymesayers website. They got a big flashing “Grayskul,
Boom Bap in Vancouver, Show Tonight!” So we spent five hours at the
border and were banned from touring in Canada for five years. But there
used to be a bridge between Seattle and Vancouver, and we’d cross it
all the time. Swollen Members would come down, Moka Only would come
down…. There was way more of a bridge like 2000 to 2003.
CONDOS
Kraft: Vancouver doesn’t have a lot of culture.
It’s got a lot of multicultural diversity, different people from
different places, but it doesn’t have much culture, and I’m not really
sure why. In Vancouver, the Georgia Straight, which is the
equivalent of The Stranger, is a lot less of an entertainment
publication than it has been in the past. On the back page of the
Georgia Straight there used to be an ad for a local record
store. It advertised all the new releases, and things like that. The
back cover has now been replaced by the latest condo developments, and
the Georgia Straight is largely getting its ad revenues not
from entertainment and shows but from real-estate development. That has
an effect on the culture of the city.
The real estate is through the roof. Everyone and their dog is
investing in real estate. I can’t afford to buy a place in Vancouver. I
could buy somewhere and not be happy with where I’m living. So I keep
renting. On a similar line, as far as condos changing the face of the
city, the development threatens concert venues, the physical spaces for
music to happen.
KEVIN DURANT
Neema: Hey, Durant relates to hiphop. All the
sports and hiphop, they go together hand in hand, I promise you. It
might not be literally, but it brings the city’s morale up when you see
your hometown sports team doing well. It’s a factual statement. And
when they say, “Save our Sonics,” there’s more to it than just saving
our Sonics. They’re really saying, “Save the community.” They want
people to get involved. I mean it; I will go that deep on it. 
LINEUP
Tues Dec 18, all ages
Blue Scholars with Big World Breaks, Swollen Members, Unexpected
Arrival, Sirens Echo,
DJ DV One
Wed Dec 19, all ages
Blue Scholars, Common Market, D.Black,
Sleep of Oldominion,
Can-U, DJ Vitamin D
Thurs Dec 20, all ages
Blue Scholars, the Saturday Knights,
Khingz, Grynch, DJ
B-Mello
Fri Dec 21, all ages
Blue Scholars with Big World Breaks,
Dyme Def, J.Pinder, GMK,
DJ Jake One
Sat Dec 22, 21+
Blue Scholars, Ohmega Watts, Cancer Rising,
the Physics,
djblesOne
