Posts tagged Seattle Hip Hop
For those who pledged to Blue Scholars’ Kickstarter project, you should’ve gotten your digital copy of Cinemetropolis today. What are your initial thoughts on the album? Been listening to this for the past couple of months and I appreciate Sabzi’s evolving, risk-taking production and Geo’s fearless ability to take listeners on many conceptual topics, while still keeping things consistent.
International Examiner Community Voice Award 2011 Profile: Geo.
Individual Arts: George “Geo” Quibuyen
A hip hop dynamo with a social consciousness.
BY IAN DAPIAOEN
“Silence is defeat, my solution is to speak” – Geologic, Opening Salvo
George “Geologic” Quibuyen. Photo credit: Melissa Ponder, www.melponder.com.
George Quibuyen, also known as Geologic/Prometheus Brown of the hip hop duo Blue Scholars, is a poet, teacher, cultural worker, activist and loving husband/father. Sharpening his skills at the Theater Off Jackson (when it was called the Northwest Asian American Theater) for isangmahal arts kollective open microphone events more than a decade ago, he now finds himself in the center of a hip hop movement in Seattle.
“For me, it’s everything,” says Quibuyen about arts and culture and its importance in Seattle’s Asian Pacific Islander movements. “The theater was a space where I found myself surrounded by people who looked like me and had shared experiences and goals, something I’ll never take for granted having performed in many spaces where this isn’t the case.”
Drawing inspiration from his life living in Bremerton, Beacon Hill and even on the islands of Hawaii, Quibuyen considers the International District as the catalyst that kickstarted his musical career. “Beacon Hill and the University District were formative relationship-wise, but it was in the International District that a community was most present. Blue Scholars played its very first Seattle show at the Nippon Kan Theater. Our first music video was filmed in/around Hing Hay Park. Many lyrics were written in and about the International District.”
A former exhibit coordinator at the Wing Luke Asian Museum, Quibuyen preserves cultural histories through his lyrics and storytelling, heightening awareness around issues such as political killings in the Philippines to the war in Iraq.
“As much as a thriving culture benefits those who participate in it in the present, I also see it as a social document for future generations,” says Quibuyen. “Most of what we know about previous generations is things we cull from their cultural productions and so for Asian Pacific Islanders in Seattle, it’s also self-preservation.”
With much experience under his belt and tens of thousands of miles traveled to perform his music, Quibuyen feels as if he’s just getting started.
“Engaging with Seattle’s rich Asian Pacific Islander history in my time working at the Wing Luke Museum…interviewing people in their 80s and 90s and doing research and meeting folks like Uncle Bob Santos, I realize that I got a long way to go and a lot of footsteps to follow!”
Quibuyen, also a movie buff and avid photographer, posts photos and movie reviews at www.prometheusbrown.com.
Blue Scholars will release their third album, Cinemetropolis, on June 14. This “Blue Scholars Signs With the People” release is funded entirely by their fans through an online campaign, raising $62,000 in less than two months. Visit www.bluescholars.com for more information.
p.s. I didn’t write the “hip hop dynamo” line =)
