Interview with Sabzi, Producer of the "Blue Scholars"
Wed
10
Sep
2008
KEYS: What's good fam, how are you? Let's start with a brief introduction. Let the readers know a little something about yourself.
SABZI: Many know me as Sabzi, DJ/Producer for both Common Market and Blue Scholars.
KEYS: Cool, let's get into it, being an individual making music which would be categorized as being of the "conscious" variety, what do you think of the type of music that's currently dominating the industry.
SABZI: I don't think we make "conscious" music. I don't think we've ever categorized ourselves as that either.
KEYS: Ok, well does it frustrate you sometimes to turn the T.V. or radio on and hear things like "superman that hoe" or do you try to step back and understand the music to see why it may be so popular.
SABZI: It doesn't frustrate me.
KEYS: What type of music did you grow up listening to, and who do you currently listen to; whether it be hip-hop, rock, etc….
SABZI: As a young kid, I used to listen to nothing but Persian music and Bollywood soundtracks. Whatever the fam was listening to. Then I got into hip-hop and whatever was on the radio in the late 80's / early 90's. Around the mid to late 90's, I started following a lot more underground punk rock and independent music. All of those elements kinda came crashing together to form the musical mind that I have today. These days I try to stay up on dancehall, hip hop, indie rock, DJs, and whatever's got that knock to it.
KEYS: Cool, so then as a producer, what kind of importance do you place on familiarizing yourself with a good variety of music.
SABZI: It's extremely important.
KEYS: You're trained as a jazz pianist right. Given that Jazz is famous for being a free flowing type of music not really hampered by concerns of song structure do you think that your training helps or hinders your musical creativity when it comes to making hip-hop music which is relatively structured?
SABZI: I would say that the study of jazz taught me to really understand the piano, and thus the language to navigate through the chords and notes of the Western scales. However, I disagree with the idea that jazz is an "unstructured" form of music, while hip hop supposedly isn't.
KEYS: I feel you. Describe your creative process. What do you usually start off with when creating a beat.
SABZI: Sometimes I start with the drums, sometimes with the chords, sometimes with the melody, sometimes it all starts with an ill sample that you know you have to flip. I don't have a particular routine really.
KEYS: Cool, now I know that quite often allot of new producers may have some good ideas as far as melodies and drum patterns but they find it difficult to execute their idea completely because they have trouble achieving the right overall sound. What kind of tips can you give as far as sound design/mixing.
SABZI: Keep practicing.
KEYS: You're from an Iranian background, correct. Do you try to incorporate any music from that area of your life.
SABZI: Not directly.
KEYS: Ok, now you're mostly known for being one half of the Blue Scholars. Your website describes the group as such "…Blue Scholars take the classic form of the emcee/DJ duo Gangstarr…" Do you think that because today artists are running from one producer to the next in the hopes of riding the producer's buzz that this leads to the creation of more watered-down inorganic music.
SABZI: I think that throwing an album together of all the "hottest tracks" from the "hottest producers" tends to make your album sound just like the albums of everybody else who has taken the same path. That's why for the first few records, we've stuck to just one DJ and one MC.
KEYS: Ok. Now, you also took part in the Red Bull beat battle of the beat makers competition. What was that experience like, I'm sure it must have brought in allot of attention for yourself.
SABZI: I really dig beat battles, and that competition was a lot of fun when I did it. So many dope producers across the country that came out to take part. Rio, Swiff D, Babu, Marco Polo, The Are, Cambo, and others. Vitamin D and Jake One are legendary producers and I'm happy to see them running an event like this. Unfortunately, after I won the finals, due to a legal issue and disorganization on the part of the other administrators of the event, I didn't get a chance to take part in the prize (to produce a track for Young Buck) and they gave it to somebody else. That experience didn't really live up to the hype of winning an event that presented itself as something so professional. I do hope that this next year whoever wins will have a better experience than I did. Beat battles are dope!
KEYS: Now do you think that all the claims of hip-hop being dead are fair given that we still have individuals such as Common, Nas and even groups such as yourself still making music.
SABZI: I don't think that somebody can say "the state of hip-hop is ______" when there are so many folk out there doing music that they call hip-hop. to say that anything is either dead or alive like that would be a gross generalization. I try to avoid such generalizations. =)
KEYS: Before ending I like to throw out some words just to see what your first thoughts about them are; just say the first thing that comes to mind when you see these:
KEYS: Snap music
SABZI: Snap music.
KEYS: J Dilla
SABZI: The end of an era.
KEYS: Independent labels
SABZI: Myth.
KEYS: The Internet
SABZI: Dope!
KEYS: Respect for taking the time out to speak with us. Let the readers know how they can keep themselves updated with you and your music.
SABZI: Just stay posted to bluescholars.com and keep an eye on the blog. Thanks lots for reading! Much respect to keysandbeats.com for the interview!
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