Blu & Exile

The underground Los Angeles-based duo of MC Blu (b. Johnson Barnes) and DJ/manufacturer Exile (b. Aleksander Manfredi) gained widespread acclaim correct from the gate using their debut record, Below the Heavens (2007), which critics crowned as the apparently perfect relationship of Blu’s everyday-struggle raps and Exile’s Pete Rock and roll- and J Dilla-inspired creation. Blu, struggling to create ends meet at that time, initial crossed pathways with Exile in the first to middle-2000s, as the rapper gained gigs being a buzz man for different soul/hip-hop clothes like Slum Community, Platinum Pied Pipers, and Exile’s very own duo, Emanon. Actually, Blu understood the spouse of Emanon, MC/vocalist Aloe Blacc, who after that introduced both to one another. Deciding to indication to L.A. impartial label Sound in Color, Exile’s label house, in 2004, Blu started cutting several records using the DJ/maker and aided him along with his single LP, Dirty Research (2006). Blu was still endeavoring to break right into the sector, but Exile was savoring creation credits for famous brands Jurassic 5, Kardinal Offishall, and Mobb Deep. The discharge from the soul-entrenched collaborative work, Below the Heavens in August 2007, place them both in the limelight and acquired fans of the choice rap scene humming; however, it particularly garnered Blu many “Musician to view” features in a variety of magazine and on the web publications over summer and winter and into 2008. During following years, they proved helpful apart a lot more than jointly; even so, 2012 brought another co-billed LP, Provide Me My Bouquets While I COULD Still Smell Them.