Blue Scholars sure know how to hype the shit out of a record. I’ve got to say this is the most subtle yet effective marketing campaign I’ve ever seen thrown behind an EP. It’s not even a full album. But Blue Scholars were really smart about the way they celebrated the release of their brand new project, Oof!, which you can read a review of right now. In addition to all of their little spot performances yesterday across the city, they finally ended their night by doing a 25 minute set at ‘Ohana’s in Belltown. By the time I walked in the venue at 10:30 p.m., the line of people trying to get in was wrapped halfway down the block. Folks were trying to smooth talk their way in but it wasn’t happening. Thankfully, I didn’t have that problem and I walked in at the exact moment the celebrated duo started performing.One of the things that stood out was that whenever Geo started rapping a new tune, half the crowd already knew the words. That’s love. I will say that despite a few missteps pointed out in the review above, most of the songs (and beats) on Oof! are catchy as hell. Sabzi was in cool guy mode sporting dark shades and a black jacket for most of the short set. He definitely had his work cut out for him though because the sound system at ‘Ohana’s is shit. The microphone kept cutting out mid verse for seconds at a time and the overall sound quality sucked. But nobody cared too much. Geo just laughed it off and rapped over songs like “Coo” and “New People” and “HI 808” anyway. After standing in the front for awhile, I fought my way to the back of ‘Ohanas to kick it at a booth with friends and a really cool older couple. Little did I know they were Sabzi’s parents. Coolest couple in the whole building. They were dancing and grooving more than the young folks. After Blue Scholars stopped performing, Sabzi started spinning reggae for the rest of the night and kept the vibe going. Although it was a relatively short, hour-long experience, Geo and Sabzi made one of the cheesiest blocks in all of Belltown tolerable last night and I’ll give them props for that.