We watched a live video for the track ” Morning of America” by Blue Scholars in class on Tuesday.

First of all the keyboard track alone was enough to make me listen to it another ten times.

I’m unaware of what Blue Scholar’s mission or creed is; maybe social justice and awareness, maybe just dope music with meaningful lyrics. Whatever the case may be this song gives the listener a little glimpse into the writer’s experience; their life, their struggles, their unique and crucially important perspective.

In the first verse Geo makes references to the age he was born in; Prince was topping the charts, Ronald Reagan was president, the Berlin Wall was still up, etc.  He mentions that his parents were immigrants and that his family was “far from the Huxtables” Bill Cosby’s African-American family on “The Cosby Show.” He effortlessly paints a picture of the times with both political and pop culture references, talking about the cold war and Marvin Gaye’s album “What’s going on?”

The song closes with a particularly proverbial set of lyrics: “Things happen for a reason to say but I say there’s a reason things happen, and it wasn’t all good way back in the day struggled then struggled now still standing.” I take this to mean that Geo views the world with a critical eye, believing in sociological cause and effect; his family didn’t struggle for some mysterious reason, because of the actions of others and the way society is his family struggled. The song doesn’t sound angry or pessimistic despite its social commentary, if anything it sounds hopeful, they are “still standing” after all.

I mentioned before that I believe that Geo and Sabzi’s perspective is crucially important. Born from two immigrant families in Seattle theirs is a voice that we don’t get to hear often enough. In order for us to learn from each other we must first hear each other out, Geo and Sabzi spread their perspective in a positive and peaceful way and I believe that their music will cause others to open their ears.