Seattle alternative hip-hop duo Blue Scholars consists of MC Geologic, a spoken word poet and the son of Filipino immigrants, as well as DJ Sabzi, a jazz trained pianist and an Iranian-American. As their backgrounds suggest, neither musician is a traditional hip-hop artist and thus, neither produces traditional hip-hop. Instead, Blue Scholars creates socially conscious hip-hop with intelligent lyrics and samples from everything from indie rock to underground electro tracks. After graduating from the University of Washington, the duo founded a record label and began releasing albums through it in 2006.