BLu

With his engaging Southern California everyman presence, Blu earned early support in his recording career through a partnership with Emanon DJ/producer Exile on the widely praised album Below the Heavens (2007). Though the project gained such esteem that Blu and Exile staged a complete performance of it ten years afterward, he has consistently avoided depending on its standing, instead issuing several full-length works annually after surfacing from the West Coast underground. Another Exile joint, Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them (2012), reached Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, a feat repeated with Good to Be Home (2014). His output has accelerated since, marked by full-lengths alongside MED and Madlib on Bad Neighbor (2015), Nottz on Gods in the Spirit, Titans in the Flesh (2018), and Oh No on A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night (2019). He also rejoined Exile for the 2020 release Miles.

Johnson Barnes entered the world in Inglewood, California, where his stepfather served as a pastor, shaping Blu's early exposure to gospel and Christian rap while he honed his MC abilities through middle and high school. Hearing Common's landmark track "I Used to Love H.E.R." (1994) and the Chicago artist's third album, One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997), marked a decisive shift; from that point, Blu moved beyond casual schoolyard freestyling to focus on carefully constructed songs. Live shows followed, during which he built experience as a hype man for underground rap and soul acts such as Slum Village, Steve Spacek, Platinum Pied Pipers, and Emanon. Ties to Emanon member Exile, paired with a fresh approach to songcraft, led to a 2004 deal with L.A. independent Sound in Color, prompting the young MC to decline overtures from Interscope and Death Row.

He soon contributed several tracks to Exile's Sound in Color album Dirty Science (2006), appeared on features for additional L.A. artists, and self-released the Lifted EP (also 2006). Though Blu and Exile remained relatively obscure in underground hip-hop when Below the Heavens (2007) appeared, the former's precise songwriting and the latter's soul-soaked, J Dilla-influenced beats swiftly drew a nationwide following. The album landed on critics' year-end lists and thrust Blu into broader hip-hop visibility. Staying independent, he later teamed with Sound in Color labelmate and L.A.-via-Detroit MC/producer Ta'Raach (formerly known as Lacks) on the joint effort C.R.A.C. Knuckles. Across the ensuing five years he put out seven albums and mixtapes total, among them Open (2011) and Blu & Exile's Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them (2012). The previously unreleased albums Her Favorite Colo(U)r (2011) and NoYork! (2013) also received official issues during this span.

Productivity remained high through the balance of the 2010s, with a continued emphasis on collaborative albums such as Good to Be Home (produced by Bombay; 2014), the MED and Madlib collaboration Bad Neighbor (2015), Gods in the Spirit, Titans in the Flesh (produced by Nottz; 2018), and The Blueprint (co-billed with Shafiq Husayn; also 2018). In the decade's final year alone he linked with Oh No for A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night, reunited with Exile for True & Livin', and joined Damu the Fudgemunk on Ground & Water. At least a dozen EPs and mixtapes surfaced in the same stretch. A further Blu & Exile LP, Miles, surfaced in 2020, followed the next year by the joint Mickey Factz and Nottz EP, The Narrative. He has likewise maintained a steady flow of individual singles. ~ Cyril Cordor