The Blue Scholars Set the Stage to Prove Viability & Depth of the Northwest Hip Hop Scene in a 5-Day Celebration of Urban Culture and Local Music

Hip Hop has continued to draw trends from regional pockets; "Crunk" from Atlanta, "Hyphy" from the San Francisco Bay Area and "Screwed and Chopped" from Houston, Texas. "The Program" introduces Northwest Hip Hop to the national scene.

Seattle, WA (Billboard Publicity Wire) December 2, 2007 -- While Seattle has long been a very musical city, most notably for the commercial success of artists in the 1990s, such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana and more recently Modest Mouse, not since Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" (1992, Def American) has the world paid much attention to Seattle's "urban" scene. That is about to change.

The Blue Scholars, one of the premiere conscious hip hop groups in the country, have been called "a local phenomenon" by Billboard.com. They have enjoyed local success and national recognition, and after performing two sold-out shows at Seattle's 1,100-capacity Showbox Music Club, they will assemble the best of Northwest Hip Hop in order to bring light to the growth of this local scene.

"The Program" as it's called, is a five night showcase that will bring together leading Northwest Hip Hop artists, DJs, visual artists, local labels and community activist groups, in a celebration of the local Hip Hop culture.

"The Program" will take place at Neumo's, located at 925 E Pike in Seattle, WA, and the schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, December 18

Blue Scholars, Swollen Members, Unexpected Arrival, Siren's Echo

DJ DV One

Wednesday, December 19

Blue Scholars, Common Market, D. Black, Sleep of Old Dominion, Can-U

DJ Vitamin D

Thursday, December 20

Blue Scholars, Saturday Knights , Khingz, Grynch

DJ B-Mello

Friday, December 21

Blue Scholars, Dyme Def, J. Pinder, GMK

DJ Jake One

Saturday, December 22*

Blue Scholars, Ohmega Watts, Cancer Rising, The Physics

DJ blesOne

* All Shows ALL AGES except Saturday December 22 (21)

Advance Tickets are $15 and available at TicketsWest.com.

For more informaiton on "The Program," please visit http://www.thestranger.com/theprogram Online interviews with the show's MC's and Producers will also appear on www.Crossfader.com

About The Blue Scholars

The Blue Scholars' past EP "The Long March" sold "8,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, with 83% of them coming from the Seattle area" (Billboard.com) and their full-length album "Bayani" debuted at # 37 on the Billboard Hip Hop chart and #25 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. The "Joe Metro" Digital EP was released November 6, 2007 by Massline Records and the "Joe Metro" music video debuted on MTVU on November 19, 2007.

For more on the Blue Scholars, please visit www.bluescholars.com

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