Once upon a time, ten years ago… when music enthusiasts were still using Napster… and N’Sync was making school girls… sweat…
Asheru and Blue Black of the Unspoken Heard dropped their album Soon Come. Sunday marked the 10-year anniversary, to-the-day, of the Soon Come release.
Asheru and Blue Black are unarguably a meeting of minds, but also they insist, their sound is a merging of generations. “Blue is the bridge between the first era and our era,” says Asheru.
Music critics like to deem their sound as a product of their hometowns, but the creators say it’s all in the “divine” timing. Blue Black gained an interest in music when hip-hop was focused around “public space” performances and parties hosted by DJs. As the hip-hop community was forced out of public spaces, artists started turning to producers to provide them with beats. “I was ready to jump in to public space when the beat world took off,” says Blue.
Trailing behind in age by six years, Asheru was introduced to Blue Black. They had an immediate respect for one another. Blue says Asheru was doing, “all the shit that everyone else is doin’ except he filters out all the best.” An undeniable synergy between the two allowed for the Soon Come album to turn-around in seemingly record time.
The group of supporters that came out to see this duo have fun on Sunday at their anniversary party at Fort Knox Recordings’ Labor Day Weekend Blowout at U Street Music Hall was riddled with Washington, DC artists that have been inspired by both the album as well as the emcees themselves.
Looking back on the lyrics of Soon Come, Asheru says, “it was like a wish list, ‘cause all those things actually happened.”
