RA Scion of Common Market and Victor Shade

In 2002, RA Scion made his freshman debut with a project titled Apostrophe, The EP. Equipped with little more than a hand drum and a thrift-shop beat machine, he set out to make a name for himself within Seattle's burgeoning underground rap scene, making it clear to anyone who cared to listen that there was, in fact, a didactic message in his music. His sophomore effort, Live & Learn, still lacked the overall production value that established his contemporaries like Boom Bap Project and D. Black as contenders for a more widespread audience, but the album marked the origin of his working relationship with DJ/Producer Sabzi of the Blue Scholars, who contributed beats for the album's stand-out tracks; two years later the duo would release one of The Town's most significant musical contributions of 2005, Common Market. As Common Market, RA Scion and Sabzi would go on to release 4 complete projects, most notably 2008's full length Tobacco Road, quickly followed by a digital-only EP offering titled The Winter's End. Critics and fans alike have speculated about the album's prominent theme of death as a metaphor for the dissolution of Common Market, but rumors have never been substan... more...