BLU  (July 2008) | Interview By: Nima Etminan

       Dubcnn had the chance to connect with Los Angeles rapper Blu for an exclusive interview. Blu, in this humoristic and light hearted interview talks to us about his collabo project "Below The Heavens" with producer Exile from last year and the details behind that, as well as the possibility of future collaborations with Exile. We then get into his numerous projects, such as C.R.A.C. with Ta'Raach, Johnson & Jonson with Mainframe, "A Day Late and A Dollar Short" with Sene, and of course Blu's solo album. Blu also talks about who he's feeling right now, how he got his name, Talib Kweli and much more.



As always we have both the transcript and the audio for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: nima@dubcnn.com

 

Interview was done in July 2008.

Questions Asked By : Nima Etminan

Blu Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Full Interview In Audio : Here

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Dubcnn: Blu is right here with dubcnn.com for an exclusive interview. The first question is... Why did you call yourself Blu?

I called myself Blu cause a chick gave me blue balls in high school, it was a joke and all the homies kept calling me Blu so it just stuck!


Dubcnn: So why'd you drop the "e"?

Cause it was cooler. *laughs* Nah, I stopped doing Ecstasy so I said "I'ma stop dropping E", so I dropped the E! *laughs* Nah, that was corny too. I don't know!


Dubcnn: So how long have you been active in the Hip-Hop scene?

I've been really doing for the last two to three years. I've been performing a lot more and 21+ clubs, festivals and different things, hooking up with people and getting paid, shit like that.


Dubcnn: Coming up on the West Coast, who did you listen to and who would you say your main influences were?

On the West or in general?


Dubcnn: In general.

The first shit that made me want to start rapping was DMX's first album. After that it was Common, who made me really get into it, his "One Day It Will All Make Sense" album, it had me like "Oh shit, I want to start talking about some shit." I got that album way late, I was like in the 12th grade when I got that, in 2000 or something, right before "Black Water" or something. But really, what hit me on the West Coast was Planet Asia's first EP. That really fucked it up for me, that's still one of my favorites.


Dubcnn: That's not the usual "N.W.A., Rakim, Jay-Z" answer I get to the question!

*laughs* Yeah I got into Hip-Hop pretty late, in the 9th grade I started listening to Hip-Hop for the first time, with Timbaland's first album, Mase and shit. *laughs*


Dubcnn: If you had to put yourself in a category, what type of rapper would you refer to yourself as?

A wack rapper. *laughs* Nah, I don't know yo! I would be like the everyday rapper. I feel like I'm just a normal kid who raps. I don't think I'm conscious or a battle rapper or a gangsta rapper, I'm just a kid that raps.


Dubcnn: Yeah that's the thing that struck me when I first listened to you. I was like "This dude talks about whatever's going on!" It doesn't sound forced, it sounds like you really talking about what you're going through.

That's the real, that's where it comes from, just day to day.


Dubcnn: You're album with producer Exile "Below The Heavens" was critically acclaimed and one of my personal favorite albums of last year. How did you originally link up with Exile?

I linked up with Exile through Aloe Blacc. He was working with some producers I knew on a project and we had a lunch where we sat down and chopped it up. He told me he heard some stuff and wanted me to hear Exile. So he brought Exile to a show and right after I got off stage Exile was the first person to walk up to me. He was like "Yo I wanna get you on my production record", which was "Dirty Science". He was like "I got joints with Slum Village and bla bla bla" I was like "You ain't even gotta sell me man, your beats is dope!"

But I didn't know how dope they were until I actually went to his crib and he played me like 100 beats. I wanted like 90 of them. So I was like "Yo man, you gotta do my album!" He was like "I'm busy as hell, I'm doing my album, trying to do this and that." So he gave me a couple of beats to see what I do with them and actually after the first song we cut together, he said let's do the album. *laughs* "Party Of Two" was the first song we ever cut.


Dubcnn: How did the concept for the album get laid out and how would you describe the recording process of it?

I always had the title in my mind since high school, but the concept was a little different. In high school I was on some "Fuck mainstream" shit when I came up with the title, so I was like "Below The Heavens", for all the underground heads. But as I started working on this record, the title fit due to the album just being day to day life on Earth, striving against something, whether it was the mainstream, or whatever people thought heaven is. It was striving towards a better place, day to day. I just felt like that fit the album that me and Exile were working on. But when we first linked up we were like "Man let's just do some shit like "Reflection Eternal" for the West Coast." I said I'm ultra down with that.


Dubcnn: It's funny you mention that, cause if I had to compare "Below The Heavens" to an album, I'd compare it to "Reflection Eternal".

I appreciate that. One of the main inspirations making the record was Jeru's "Wrath Of The Math". That was really in my headphones all the fucking time while I was writing that album.


Dubcnn: When I recently interviewed Talib Kweli, he mentioned you as the cat that he's feeling the most right now-

No he didn't!


Dubcnn: He did! When I asked him he said "that Blu & Exile" album.

Damn, that's really dope.


Dubcnn: I believe you hooked up with him for the "Hostile Gospel" remix?

Yup, yup! He reached out to my management, they told me that Kweli was trying to get me on this remix and I was like "I'm down!" I cut the verse the next day, sent it back and within a week the shit was out! I was like "That's the quickest turn around I've ever seen, ever!" "Below The Heavens" was done 2006, that shit came out like late 2007! So when they just dropped that song on some tomorrow type shit, that shit is dope! *laughs*


Dubcnn: That must have been pretty crazy to hook up with the dude who was an inspiration to you.

Oh I never actually met him, I just swapped emails with him. I still haven't met Kweli. After I did the song, I actually talked to him on the E-mail, I did the song without even talking to him.


Dubcnn: That's how it is nowadays, I tend to forget about that.

Yeah man! I mean I would definitely prefer it the other way, but you gotta move yo! Heads gotta move, niggas be like in muthafuckin' different countries! *laughs* Trying to get you on a song that he wants to put out next week, so you gotta do what you gotta do!


Dubcnn: Now a year later, would you change anything to the album if you could?

No, I always said the only thing that I would do that I didn't, would be to put my boy Cashis King on a record, cause he was an important inspiration around that time. The songs we did didn't make the record, and I was like "Man, there were spots he would've fit in perfectly." But other than that, nah, I love the record.


Dubcnn: What's your current relationship with Exile, can we expect more work of you two together?

Yeah! We just got back from Vegas opening up for Joe Budden, that was a pretty crazy show. We've just been talking about our plans for the next record, we've got some pretty dope ideas so it's about deciding which ones we're actually gonna use and when are we actually gonna do this. Exile has about four different projects under his belt right now that he's working on and I have about the same. So we're both like "Damn, we got a lot of shit on the table, but we want to do this next record." So it's all gonna come around, we're mixing the Johnson & Jonson record right now, me and Ta'Raach have ideas for our next record, so it's all gonna keep moving in circles. But I'm definitely gonna be doing a solo record before all of those.


Dubcnn: So how's the sitution over at the new record label?

I don't have a new record label yet, the only situation I signed over was with Tres Records, I signed over C.R.A.C. Knuckles (Blu & Ta'Raach) and I signed over Johnson & Jonson, which were two previously completed records and they just wanted to license them from our catalogue. So we reissued C.R.A.C., and we're putting out Johnson & Jonson in September officially. Tres Records has put out Giant Panda, some other groups, it's an independent out here on the West Coast that we're cool with. They've put out some Ta'Raach 12"s in the past and they just reached out to us and we made that happen! Right now, as far as the solo, I'm looking for a major label distributor for that record. I don't really want to reveal too much about it, I want it to be a big boom! *laughs*


Dubcnn: You recently dropped the C.R.A.C. Mixtape with Ta'Raach, tell us about that.

That wasn't a mixtape! We originally dropped a tour EP, but it was a little longer than a EP, it had 11-12 songs on it, we did them in 7 days and pressed them up for a tour. A year later, Tres Records wanted to put it out and we were like "Damn, that shit is old!" So we put a couple of new songs on it, some of the new crazy shit we've been working on like "Buy Me Lunch", "Bullet Through Me" and "Love Don't". So we put those on there to spice it up and found the best way to compile it and present it. As of April 2008, that's where C.R.A.C. was, so we wanted it to represent from where we started to where we are now without having in to craft a new album, because the budget wasn't right for a new album.


Dubcnn: I feel you. I got it wrong then, I read online somewhere that it was a mixtape, you know how that goes!

Yeah shit goes down online man! I got mixtapes out that I don't even approve of, so when you said mixtape at first I thought you were talking about one of these cats that did some shit. I was about to do a mixtape and I looked back on all the joints I wanted to put on it, and these muthafuckas is out on mixtapes already! I'm like "How you got a "Best Of Blu" mixtape?" Some muthafucka called me to do a drop for a mixtape he's doing of me! I'm like "I don't even know who you are! You didn't even ask me! What are you talking about can I do a drop? No I'm not gonna do no muthafuckin' drops!" *laughs*


Dubcnn: That's how it goes nowadays, they just take that shit and run with it!

That shit is crazy! But it's dope though. Big ups to all the DJ's who do mixtapes for me, I actually appreciate it.


Dubcnn: Tell us about the "A Day Late and A Dollar Short" project that you're working on with Sene (pronounced it Se-Ne), or how do you pronounce his name?

No. Sene (pronounced Scene)! *laughs* I gotta tell him you said that yo!


Dubcnn: *laughs* We've had him featured on the site a lot, but I haven't actually talked to him so I wasn't sure.

I know! He just did a song where he says "People call me Se-Ne" and I said "What? I ain't never heard nobody ever call you that!"


Dubcnn: See, I just did! I didn't know how to pronounce Ta'Raach's name either!

Oh yeah, man, people be fucking up Ta'Raach's (pronounced Ta-Rock) name like something stupid! And C.R.A.C. (pronounced Crass)! And I always get the "e" on the flyer!


Dubcnn: *laughs*

But I don't be tripping!


Dubcnn: So yeah, Sene, tell us about the "A Day Late and A Dollar Short" project with him.

Yeah man, he just hit me up on AIM yesterday and we finalized the EP, which we're gonna release before the LP. But I'm taking a production role in this project and Sene is doing all the raps. I pop in for a verse or so if those songs make it, but most of it, the vocals are coming from Sene and whoever he features on the project. I've been stepping into production, I'm producing a soundtrack right now, and as I was doing that, my boy Cashis King and Sene would come through to the crib all the time like "Yo we're feeling the beats!"

I didn't think they were too ready to do whatever until they started writing really dope songs to them! So I said "Let's craft a project" and he said "I'm down man, I got like seven projects!" *laughs* We all got a crazy work ethic, we're sitting on a cool 20 songs, we're about to present about eight of them in the next couple months as the first EP just to get the buzz going and the name out there. It's dope that you're already up on that shit.


Dubcnn: So when can we expect that to come out?

Two months for the EP and I would like to drop the full length album by the top of the year. We just want to drop the EP to get a buzz and to get the full length picked up.


Dubcnn: Another project that's coming out is the "Johnson & Jonson" project, what's that all about?

Johnson & Jonson, that's for my boy Mainframe, who's a producer from back in the days. He actually started Sound In Color, the label that released "Below The Heavens". He signed me there, started the label when he was 19, he's 26 now and the fool is like a young Dame Dash or some shit. His business is pretty savvy and he's got albums with Dilla, he's worked with a lot of different cats. We've done like three records together, Johnson & Jonson was the first one, and he had started his second label while we were putting out "Below The Heavens".

That's how we created Johnson & Jonson, cause we didn't wanna rap over other people's beats that's out right now, so we were like "Fuck it, let's just rap over old songs!" *laughs* We did it and fools just started getting on it and it became its own identity. So we were like "Fuck it, let's just put this out!" Same thing with C.R.A.C.. We always sit on a grip of material, but Johnson & Jonson is one of the projects that me and Mainframe have going. That should be coming out in September under Tres.


Dubcnn: So who are you feeling on the West Coast right now?

On the West, my boy Cashis King definitely, Ta'Raach is from Detroit but that nigga... We've got a lot of ill imports out here, like Sene also. But fools from out here that are dope, Pacific Division, I like J. Davie a lot, I think she can rap circles around a lot of these niggas rapping, but she be singing and shit. I like a lot of producers like Flying Lotus, Samiyam. Samiyam is an import too, though. But it's some fools, I really like Sa-Ra, Shafiq from Sa-Ra is really ill on the raps. His solo rap album is gonna be pretty huge. Big ups to my man Gonja Sufi, who's actually putting out singing albums through Warp Records, but that fool has bars galore! But yeah the West Coast is coming back strong, it's ill because it's more than Hip-Hop now. That's what's making the West Coast movement bigger, we do so much. Artists that are coming out like Georgia Anne Muldrow, she raps crazy and produces, but sings ridicolous! It's an ill fusion out here right now.


Dubcnn: Do you listen to any cats like Bishop Lamont, Crooked I and people like that?

Oh yeah, I liked Crooked I when he first started blazing his freestyles, that was my favorite shit, like when Graph first started coming out around the time 50 Cent first started dropping muthafuckin' mixtapes. Graph's shit was really crazy. But yeah I do feel Bishop Lamont, big ups to him, a lot of heads like Self Scientific, Planet Asia is still ill, I like Phil Da Agony. It gets deeper, Alchemist be out here chilling.


Dubcnn: I was about to mention him, I was about to ask if there's any chance of you hooking up with Alchemist.

Oh yeah, we've linked up through Evidence, we've done a few tracks. We plan on working on some more shit though., getting the West Coast movement going. I just linked up with Grouch for the first time, Living Legends. Everything is coming together, slowly but surely. We're not rushing it, not sweating the technique.


Dubcnn: I heard you were originally on the hook for the F.A.T. Boys track?

Yeah I was! I did like a Slick Rick joint on there or something, I forgot about that shit! *laughs* Yeah, that was because the version I rapped on for their project, I think Kweli ended up using that beat or something. I think we had to flip the beat or some shit like that and flipped it. I've done quite a few joints with those fools though, man. They used to come through to the Johnson & Jonson sessions all the time yo. Those fools are hella down, cool dudes.


Dubcnn: Name something that you like about Hip-Hop in 2008, and one thing that you dislike.

In 2008 I like that artists are putting out their own music and it's not easy to get signed anymore. You gotta be about your shit, you gotta be on your shit. If you're not on your shit, you're not about to get signed. Even though Soulja Boy is wack and all that shit, that muthafucka is 16 years old, promoting the shit out of hisself, making his own beats and shit. That's why muthafuckas get signed and get all these budgets, because of what they're doing themselves. I think that's dope. I think it's dope that real music is coming back around, and that the West Coast is coming back. I know that was three, but that's what I like in '08.

What I don't like in '08 is that the fools that should be leading the movement are complaining, or mad, or angry about everything. You shouldn't be! You should open your eyes to what's going on and it's a lot to find. It's not like it's a huge abundance of greatness right now, it's not like the new generation is smashing the old one or some shit like that, because the generation before us wasn't smashing the generation before them either. It goes deeper and deeper when you go all the way into Soul, all those fools doing Soul music was smashing these niggas on the raps! Like Common said in "It's Your World", he said "It's hard to stay grounded that's why old folks down us", I feel that. We do be on some other shit, but this is our world right now, yo! Next generation, I love Hip-Hop.


Dubcnn: Alright, I really appreciate the time that you took to talk to us. Is there anything else you'd like to let everybody know?

Yeah. Create. Creation is a beautiful thing.