Blu & Exile
Blu & Exile have fingers in so many pies, it’s a full-time job keeping up. But beyond their collaborations, solo projects and plans for the future, there’s the Below The Heavens album, an already classic slab of noughties hip-hop that emerged in 2007 to universal acclaim. In a hip-hop landscape beset by mediocrity, these two are making some of the most innovative music around on their own or with the likes of Ta’Raach, Mobb Deep and Oh No.
In their lecture at the 2008 Red Bull Music Academy, the duo discussed how they hooked up in the L.A underground and detailed their myriad projects, from ripping samples from the radio to the leftfield stylings of C.R.A.C.
Hosted by Davide Bortot Welcome everybody to the first session of today. We have two gentlemen who’ve
come all the way from Los Angeles. They put out an album last year called Below the Heavens, which to many was one of the best rap albums in quite a few years. He’s the rapper [points to Blu], he’s the DJ [points to Exile]. Give it up for Blu & Exile. [applause] So you’re not really the traditional hip-hop group, you work with other people as well. Maybe you could explain why you hooked up in the first place. Exile Well, at first I was making music with Aloe Blacc as a group called
Emanon. We later met a group called
the Science Project, and were about to start a label with Blu and Miguel and some other folks. I’d always heard about Blu and one day me and Aloe went to check out one of his shows. I was working
on a producer project where I had different features. I saw him perform and it was amazing, I loved it. He heard some music I had done too as well and we just hooked up and made a song. After the first song that we made, we started discussing making an album together and what it would sound like. Davide Bortot You and your family have a pretty long history with music and in music. Maybe you could break that down. How did that influence you, having your father playing in a band, your grandfather playing in a band? Exile Well, my grandfather, he taught music and played things from traditional Italian music to even Mexican mariachi music. My father played in a ‘60s garage rock type of band called Lost and Found. One of the records was reissued in London. They both taught music. I had my own guitar and drum studio, they taught me accordion when I was little. I wasn’t living with my father too much when I was growing up but there was definitely a musical
influence in my life, in my blood. Davide Bortot How about you, Blu? It might sound like a fanzine question ever, but what was your first contact with hip-hop? Blu The first time I heard hip-hop? My dad gave me LL Cool J’s “Bad” on cassette. I thought that was dope, but as soon as I got it home my moms took it from me. Davide Bortot How did you get it back then? Blu I didn’t. I got it on vinyl a few years ago. That was my first time getting it since. Davide Bortot So coming from Los Angeles, you seem to have a strong East Coast lyrical background in there. What were the rap albums that influenced you the most? Blu The first thing I heard that made me want to rap... I was listening to
DMX’s It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot. Davide Bortot For real? That's dope. Blu I was listening to Al Green a lot, Kirk Franklin, and [addressing Exile] what’s the old boy who was singing gospel? There was a bunch of his records, but I forgot, like Fred Hammond, Jr. or something. I got into those before I got into hip-hop, then I moved in with my dad and he was banging Too Short and B-Legit and I borrowed DMX from him. Davide Bortot So what is it you find in all those people? That’s a pretty wide range from Al Green to DMX to Too Short, a pretty long trip. So what it that appeals to you about all those people? Blu Well, I got into Common. From DMX I went into like Redman, Canibus, the whole freestyle era, freestyle battling, and from there I got into Common and it changed. Common was a major influence on me musically. DMX had me writing some stuff that you guys will never hear, you know what I’m saying? Exile You guys should know his stepfather suppressed his hip-hop listening. He couldn’t freely listen to hip-hop. They would take things from him. Blu I had “This Is How We Do It” under my bed, a cassette single. Davide Bortot So Common, one day it all made sense, right? Blu Pretty much. Davide Bortot The One Day It Will All Make Sense album was crucial to your career. Blu That was the first Common album I heard. My boy, who really got me into rapping, he would bite a lot of Resurrection. I didn’t know what it was, but at the time we would write raps back and forth, I wasn’t even reciting them. I would read his raps and be like, “Damn, this fool got some crazy punchlines.” And then one day he played me Resurrection and I was, “You said all that.” One Day It Will All Make Sense I heard before and it did really change me, it was the first hip-hop record I heard where there were so many topics, so many concepts, a rapper with so much to say, without having the craziest style like a Busta Rhymes or a DMX. Davide Bortot So after the album you did last year with Exile last year, you did two
others – one with Ta’Raach, formerly known as C.R.A.C. Knuckles and another with Mainframe as Johnson & Jonson. So what’s with you and these collaboration albums? What’s so special about having two people in the room creating one album? Blu It’s more like a vibe. When two people come together, more so than having one person directing a record, then a sound gets developed, a certain direction, something cohesive about it. I like each project to be different, completely different. Either the sound or the direction or the concepts. So I work with many different
producers every year, all year ‘round, and still do, and every now and then you meet with someone where the vibe clicks off and you just go from there. Me and Exile, it took us three years to do the record. Me and Ta’Raach, it took us seven days to do the record. Me and Mainframe, it took us two years to do it. Exile I think it took us less than three years, but it took that long to get out. Also I was working on the Dirty Science project at the same time. Blu Still took us three years, though. Davide Bortot So when you say the one album took you three years, the other album seven days, what’s the main difference in result? Exile We spent a lot of time developing the sound and learning things, and that’s why he was able to possibly work more freely doing the other record, which was actually being recorded at the same time as ours. So he was working on three records at the same time, really. Davide Bortot So maybe we can hear some of this music? Blu Yeah, I’ve got to hook up my iPod. (music: Johnson & Jonson – “Hold On John”) (music: C.R.A.C. Knuckles – “Buy Me Lunch”) (music: C.R.A.C. Knuckles – “Bullet Through Me”) Davide Bortot Thank you. I think we can see that is totally different vibe from what you played before, so what was the concept behind that one? Blu C.R.A.C., we just wanted to go totally out of the box with it. A lot of the earlier songs were just random rap songs, inspired by Bomb Squad, you know what I mean? But a lot of the later later ones, we were listening to some otherness. Even that song, we cut really quickly and it became the second single, it was our favorite song on there to. We just liked that it was different
to anything either of us had created, me or Ta’Raach. Ta’Raach does a lot of harder Detroit-sounding music. At the time I’d just put out Blu & Exile with Ex, which was more feel-good hip-hop, lyrical, trying to touch people with lyrics. This was just fun. Do whatever. Davide Bortot So if we go to the lyrics could you play some of Below the Heavens? (music: Blu & Exile – “So(ul) Amazing” (instrumental)) Blu I just realized, I just have the instrumentals. I can do the verses, though.
That song was called “So(ul) Amazing,” it was a remix of an old song called “Soul Provider.” [raps the lyrics / applause] Davide Bortot Ex, when people first heard about Blu I think, yeah, it was something new for a lot of them. He stood out from radio dumbness but also from indie rap boredom as well. So what do you think is so special about him? What made you want to work with him? Exile He writes stuff from his heart. And although at the time he really wanted to just get across his spitting, I really wanted to try to pull out of him the stuff that was in his heart and to battle everything else going on in the hip-hop scene. Now, a lot of it is to get you hype and drunk and not really for thinking about anything else. I just miss in music truth being what appeals to you about it, something truthful, the personality of an artist. I think he’s able to show his personality with his lyrics. Davide Bortot All the reviews of this when it came out said, “hip-hop is so wack nowadays, finally here’s something that brings it back.” Is hip-hop really that wack nowadays? Blu No it’s not, it’s really not. There’s just a lot that’s not heard, ours broke through and I’m thankful for that, but there were a lot of really ill records that were slept on the year before, the year before that For us, it was when independent music on the internet really
cracked off through MySpace. So it helped us, just in the nick of time. Exile I think there are two types of hip-hop out there, two different sets of people motivated by different things. Right now, a lot of people are motivated purely off of money, so they’re making songs to make that money, to achieve what’s motivating them. There’s a whole other side of hip-hop that’s not getting the light because there’s not the media pushing it, which is motivated by love and being creative and doing something different. Davide Bortot We’ll talk about money later on, but you mentioned earlier that it’s important
for a record to be truthful in some way and show its personality. Why’s that? Let’s take
Lil Wayne, for example, he’s mad creative, he might not show his personality, but that’s wrong with that? Wasn’t it about entertainment? I hear that a lot from people, about how you have to be honest with your lyrics and it’s not only about showing how hard you are. But when you think back to “Rapper’s Delight,” was that truthful to their personality? Exile Yeah, yeah, I hear you. That’s just where I wanted to take the music I was working on. Lil Wayne definitely shows his personality. Blu And he’s honest. Exile Yeah, you’re right. But there are other people who are just trying to capture that money. But that’s why people like
Lil Wayne, because he does show his personality and that really is him. I think there needs to be a balance for hip-hop to survive, there’s a need for people showing their heart. Davide Bortot So you work together in the studio on the album, not just sending each other
beats. How did that affect the album? Whenever those big classics come in hip-hop, it’s always like one producer, one rapper, so how was it on Below the Heavens? What was the atmosphere and what was so special in the studio? Blu It changed. There were different studios. When we started Below the Heavens
we cut our first song on Exile’s four-track cassette, we cut “I Am Blu.” Exile No, that wasn’t the first one. Blu “Party Of Two” wasn’t on the album. Exile Oh, for the album, yeah. Blu That’s when we decided to do the album, after we cut that song. You don’t remember, huh? Exile Yeah, I remember, we stayed up all night. He found this Grover from Sesame Street sample where
he’s singing (affects Grover’s voice), “I am blue.” He was, “You’ve got to
make a beat out of it.” “I don’t know.” But he was pressing the issue, so I made these drums and I played the record at normal speed to the drums and it fit perfectly, I didn’t have to fix the pitch at all. He stayed up and wrote
it on the spot and we did the end of the writing together. That was the only feature where I’m rapping on the album. Davide Bortot Do you have the record on your computer? Can you play it? Blu But yeah, the vibes were different. This was the recut version, our only regret is not using the four-track version on the album. [searches for the track] I could play the instrumental. Davide Bortot The instrumental and the rapping? That would work. Blu Oh, with the rap. Exile I’ve got it right here. [cues it up] I sampled some little kids, you can hear them say “blue”, too. [to Blu] Are you gonna do it? (music: Blu & Exile – “I Am Blu” (instrumental)) Blu I’m going to try to remember the words. [Blu raps] I can’t remember anything else, I was only 21. [applause] Davide Bortot So all the beats on the album, I guess, were made on this little machine that might be familiar to some hip-hop producers, the MPC. So what do you like about this machine that you make all your beats on it? Exile I used to use a Roland MS-1, which is about eight pads and no quantising or anything. And there’s no looping except for a live loop, so I’d actually have to hold down samples and play the drums while I’m holding it down and press the change up of the beat. I mean, you don’t have to do that with this, so that’s why this is appealing to me. I stick with it because it’s what I know and I’m too broke to buy other stuff. Davide Bortot There’s cheap software, cheaper than ever. Why not stick to software? Exile Soon enough I think I’ll make the switch to that so I can have more sounds. Davide Bortot But I think maybe you’ve got a loving relationship with the MPC and you use it live on stage too. So maybe you can show that to these gentlemen here? Exile Sure. So I’ve been doing live stuff. I started off doing a lot of drumming type stuff. I learned my hands for drumming when I was younger by putting my head up against these metal telephone poles and just banging them. I’d come up with new beats and the bass would be hitting my head like crazy. But now, just from being in beat
battles and being sick of just pressing play, and it being a battle of who can nod their head the craziest. I wanted to try to incorporate the guitars and basslines in with it too and keep having that evolve, so other people will want to do live stuff too. There are no loops, there’s just banging on it like you’re banging on that. [bangs on MPC] But let me make sure the levels aren’t going to get a little bit [crazy]. This one’s sampled from “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters. Let me make sure this isn’t blowing the speakers. (music: Herbie Hancock – “Watermelon Man” (Exile remix) /
applause) Davide Bortot So this is how you make beats, right? Exile [laughs] You know what, I have made beats like that when I’m doing stuff live, where I don’t make any loops and the measures go up to 999 and I just keep it like that. But I make beats the other way, too, because it definitely allows you more freedom, and it definitely allows it to sound better. This one sounds good, but it also works visually and it gets the audience more involved than just playing vinyl. Davide Bortot So how about the samples? Are you a record digger like Madlib or Egon? Exile I don’t have the money to be quite like them. I’m more of a 99-cent shopper digger. For me, going through thrift shops and finding gems in there is more rewarding than spending my check on all gems or whatever. And I like to be able to flip stuff that isn’t necessarily crazy expensive records, so I canput my own little flip on them. Especially if it’s something that’s not supposed to sound hard. That’s what I love to do, there’s a lot of stuff you can dig for that already sounds dope. Davide Bortot When you listen to Below the Heavens, it’s not like you’ve got the ultra- obscure samples on there. Could you tackle it as a bit of a sport, take a familiar sample and flip it an unfamiliar way? Exile Yeah, I like to be able to take something someone already knows and that people would be like, “I don’t want to sample that.” I like to take things and flip them and give it
another approach. Davide Bortot You were telling me about your new project at breakfast, of sampling old stuff from the radio. Maybe you could tell us about that? Exile Well, I have this new project coming out which is definitely a broke man’s way to make a record, so you don’t have to pay for samples to dig. I made the whole record off of the radio, everything sampled off the radio, even the drums. I even take some AM frequencies and put
them in key with the beat and do percussion with static noises from the radio. I have this boom box where you can do the same frequency [makes whirring noises] and I have the tuner knob from the radio as the turntable. And I use the volume up and down as the crossfader and I’m able to make scratch noises with it and stuff. Davide Bortot Do you have anything off that, off the computer? Exile Yeah. Was it distorting? I think it’s distorting a little bit, I don’t know if there's a way to fix that. This is just me flipping through the radio for the beginning. (music: Exile – unknown / applause) Blu How many different “loves” was that? How many different songs? Exile Well actually, Carlos Niño on Spaceways Radio, he was doing a fundraiser, as they always do, for his public radio show and he was talking about love in the sense of getting money to bring it to the station and all that type of stuff. “Make sure you do, make sure you do.” So I flipped his words so, whereas he was saying, “If you haven’t got the CD yet, make sure you do,” I did, “If you haven’t gotten love yet, make sure you do.” So I got that from his record, and
then the other “love” from another record he was playing. Blu [inaudible] Exile: No, that was Carlos, the other one was... fuck, what was it? Audience Member [inaudible] Exile: Yeah, Dwight Trible. I always wanted to make an instrumental project but I didn’t want it to just be a beats record, I
wanted to communicate a message of stuff I’ve learned in my life. There are definitely lots of things being represented on the radio, from evils to wonderful things. I tried to represent them both on the album. Davide Bortot Was radio a big influence growing up? For us Germans it’s hard to imagine because from the moment you moved on from Milli Vanilli and realized there weren’t any decent radio stations anymore. Exile Definitely, KDAY radio was a major influence on me. My mom’s boyfriend at the time introduced me to it and turned me onto hip-hop even more. Before that my first two tapes were the Sex Pistols and LL Cool J Radio, ironically. My album’s called Radio. That definitely helped lay the foundation of my love for hip-hop. Davide Bortot What made you go for LL Cool J instead of the Sex Pistols? Exile Going to roller-skating rinks and hearing electro being played and seeing people break-dancing. And I loved Michael Jackson at the time. I had the red Michael Jackson Thriller jacket. I met Shabba-Doo from Breakin’. I loved the movie Breakin’, so that definitely took me from the punk stuff to the hip-hop. Davide Bortot So talking about electro, maybe you could answer this question. Do you have an explanation for the phenomenon why suddenly all the really hard backpackers, really hard underground Nazis, they all get wet panties when they listen to Ed Banger? Exile Who? Davide Bortot Electro and techno music. Exile You mean like Kanye? He’s the same age I am, so I’m sure he was listening to the same stuff I was. Any respectful artist will put the influence into their music. I’m sure he always loved electro, but back in ‘95 it probably wasn’t the time to bring it out. Now they found a way to incorporate it back into the music. Davide Bortot With beats, there’s definitely a strong influence of what’s going on in the West in your beats. Is there any inspiration you draw from that? Exile Definitely, Zapp and One Way, like the boogie stuff, the head-nodding shit, Dre and King Tee. I was a big fan of Pooh and all those cats. Battlecat. Yeah, that’s some West Coast shit, but everyone across the globe was into that too. Davide Bortot So when you work together is there ever an issue there? You’re not way older, but it’s seven years, and I think Zapp might not be the biggest influence for you. [talking to Blu] Blu Sometimes I want to talk about some stuff and Exile is just, “Nah man, that’s just that shit.” Davide Bortot For example? Blu If I did a joint like “Up All Night” and tried to give that to Exile, he’d be, “Nah, man.” Exile He always complains that he can’t do the stuff he did on Johnson & Jonson on my beats, but to be honest, my beats did not – what’s the word I’m looking for? – cater to that sound. It sounds way better on what they did, man. I personally think it was a blessing to my album for me not using it, because I think it built up all this energy that he was able to put in the Johnson & Jonson album. Blu And C.R.A.C.. Davide Bortot How about another Blu & Exile album? Any plans for that? Blu We have plans to do another record, we have different ideas on how to approach it and we’re just waiting on timing. Exile has about three records coming out; I have four sitting about to release. We’re cleaning our plates and waiting for the perfect time. Davide Bortot How do you write anyway? Below the Heavens was pretty much live, the whole album. The C.R.A.C. was more of a fun thing. Are you the rhyme-book type of guy or the laptop type? Blu I write, I just got a laptop two years ago, so I type slow as hell. Exile When I first started hanging out with Blu, you know, we were all hanging out with a bunch of different MCs at the time, and this blew me away because they’d play a beat and it would be three MCs just writing all at the same time. When I write I’ve got to write a little bit and stop the beat, get my head around the idea. They would just go strong, just beats playing non-stop, writing. Davide Bortot So you only got your laptop two years ago. I read you didn’t even have a cellphone until a year ago, is that true? Blu Yeah, I’ve had a cellphone since probably ‘03. What is it, ‘08? Davide Bortot OK, but talking about the whole laptop thing, it’s pretty important not only to make music but also to get it out somehow. You’ve always been pretty strong on the MySpace and internet stuff. How important is that to you, even when it comes to creating music? Blu I just put ProTools on my laptop. I’ve been making beats recently so I’m in a production. I’ve been doing that for about two years, but I’ve only just put ProTools
on my laptop so my laptop just got important to me. Before that it was just checking messages, it was like a phone. But now I get to make music on it, so it’s dope. Exile Yeah Blu's got beats, for sure. Blu I got some beats, yo. Davide Bortot Talking about promoting stuff, the guys who come here this afternoon will have more to say about that, but I think you’re pretty strong on that too. I think people who listen to your music are really strong on the whole internet thing. Is it important to use that as a tool? Blu It was timing, like I said before. The whole internet thing, the MySpace thing happened just as our releases were coming out right as people were discovering who we were, who I was. Exile was putting out mixtapes when it was tapes, so it was just different timing. When we first got MySpace I was denying people I didn’t know. “Who was
that? Who was that?” The label was like, “Yo man, how are you gonna sell a record?” So it helps, but it’s really more that the means of marketing now is the internet, so it’s not like I’m going for it, all labels are. Everyone who markets markets to the internet strongly. Davide Bortot I think ten years ago, a group like you would have been on Rawkus, put out a 12" and sell maybe 120,000 copies. Now if you put out a 12" you’d sell maybe 12 copies, so the format has changed and you’ve adapted a lot to it, putting out albums at a fast pace, putting songs on MySpace, not really caring if people offer it as a free download. What’s your take on that? Blu Well, it was hard to digest before because Below the Heavens leaked a year ago. A year before
its release, should I say. And Johnson & Jonson leaked a year ago and just released this month. So it hurts that I didn’t get to put it out the way I wanted to, or it wasn’t heard the way I wanted it to be heard. But what it did for me was so much, so I can’t knock people downloading records
because that brought me here. There were only 3,500 CDs of Below the Heavens pressed, so the downloading and the iTunes and all that, man, that’s what it is. Davide Bortot How about the working models? It’s important now for a hip-hop artist to have something every week, every month. Is it hard coming from a perspective where it might take you longer to write a lyric and not just put something down or do a freestyle or whatever. Is it kind of hard for you to keep up with that pace? Blu No, I definitely don’t try to even keep up with that pace. The reason why so many
records have come out is because, I’ve had the recordds... All the records were done in 2006 and were set to release earlier. Since then it was delayed so we’ve added a few things and touched them up, but really, it’s because it took the labels that long to get them out. So it looked like they were fulfilling demand, but really it’s been years of waiting and in those years waiting I’ve stacked up another three or four records. It’ll just continue to pour for a while. Like I said, it’s not even me, it’s just god’s timing. It just worked out like that. Davide Bortot So what’s next? Blu Next will be my first production record, as a producer. My boy Sene from Brooklyn is rapping on it so that will be dope, that will be dropping at the top of the year. We’re actually going to be doing Below the Heavens live with a band and everything, that will be dope. I mean with a band live. I have something of an alternative rock album we did two years ago, which will be just thrown out there. I don’t want to promote it or do interviews, we just want it available. I’m just going to throw it out there, so that’ll be out with BoB Smiles. That was with Mainframe and a band they were working with called Dirty Blind, a lot of their musicians came and worked with us on that record, different singers. And I have a soundtrack for a short film, God Is Good, that’ll be coming out too. Davide Bortot So who’s this guy from Brooklyn, a MySpace friend? Blu No, he stays in LA now, so I’ve known him for four years. He’s been in LA for about four years. Davide Bortot But you still consider yourself an MC first, so when you make beats do you come from an MC perspective? Blu Definitely, definitely. It’s crazy because a lot of MCs tell me that they can hear it in my beats that I’m an MC, just because of how I set up the beat for a rapper. It’s really simple. I’ve not been a producer two years and it’s on ProTools, so it’s not like I’ve got crazy techniques, it’s just that I know how to set a
rapper up. I helped Mainframe out a lot on Johnson & Jonson, that’s where I got into it, loops and chopping. Exile He would help me out too sometimes. He’d be giving me his suggestions. I was like, “Man, you need to make some beats.” “Nah, nah.” “Man, you’re tripping, you could really make some beats.” Davide Bortot So what about your rapping? Exile My rapping? Yeah, I’ve got a record that’s hopefully coming out next summer. It’s all recorded on the four-track, mainly because I didn’t have ProTools at the time and I just wanted to get it out of me, but also just to show what you can do with four tracks. And I love the sound of it – the first stuff that we started to sell was all four-track, so I wanted to touch back to my four-track roots and, yeah, it’s me rapping. Blu It’s really dope. It’s really, really dope. Like Radio and Cassette, both of them, are really big records for hip-hop. Exile I actually changed the name to 4TRK Mind. Davide Bortot You said you needed to get it out of you. What does that mean? Therapy? Exile Definitely therapy; it was time and I wasn’t going to let not having ProTools
hold me back, I just thought, “Fuck it,” plugged it and went for it. A lot of the record actually is freestyle. I approached it in this way where I rap how I felt it, and if I ever fucked up I would just rewind it and punched it, building the songs as I’d go. Davide Bortot So as far as the live thing, putting together a band, what made you want to do that? Exile Well Blu was always talking about it, and now we’re finally getting it together. Blu Koochie Monsters, who did the outro for the Below the Heavens record; it was
a musician I was staying with at the time, they were all musicians from different bands, we all came together, we’ve known each other since high school. We’ve got some ill bassist, some ill guitars, we just wanted to come
together with some musicians. With Exile on the MP, too, it’s going to be pretty crazy. Davide Bortot Why is it that performing hip-hop with a live band in 93 percent of cases just doesn’t work? Blu I don’t know. [laughs] Exile Because they’re using new-sounding drums, you need some grimy sounding drums. You can’t do hip-hop with new sharp drums, you need some old ’60s drums. Blu You mean recorded or live? Davide Bortot Not even recorded, just live it’s usually pretty embarrassing. Blu I think it was just an era when the hip-hop bands were really potent, but I think it died down. Davide Bortot You mentioned your next Blu & Exile album. Do you think that will be difficult? Because Below the Heavens was complete in a way. It showcased you as a producer, you as a MC, it had a really energetic sound. How can you come up with the next one? Blu We’ve learned so much and grown so much, every couple of months I hear some Exile beats and say, “Dude, let’s just bust it out.” But I want us to have the same amount of time we put into Below the Heavens. But we’ve learnt so much, just from other people recording us, so it’s timing. We could bust out the record so quickly on our own, we’ve learned so much lyrically and production-wise, stepping it up wouldn’t be hard. I’m actually really looking
forward to it. Davide Bortot You seem like a group kind of guy, always working with someone. So what would the Blu solo album look like? Blu The Blu solo album is going to be a three-part album. It’s going to be like three EPs in one and it’s going to be next summer. I don’t really want to go into it, there are four more records coming out before that one and I’ve only just started it. But when it comes it’s going to be nice. I’m putting the most
into that record, not lyrically, but rapping for songwriting, structures, transitions, melodies. Big songs, not big pop. Exile He can sing too. Blu No singing, not from me, other singers. I’m trying to write for other singers on the record. Exile He’s lying. Davide Bortot You’re a very modest person. How come you became a rapper? Blu Because no one would listen to me, so I just started rapping. [laughter] Davide Bortot Were you shy at school? Blu Very. I was very little, yo. I got tall after high school, so chicks always thought I was young looking and stuff. Davide Bortot When did you start rapping? I think it was kind of late, not the usual, “I’ve been rapping since I was eight.” Blu Tenth grade, DMX. Davide Bortot So is it hard for you go up on stage and do what you do? Are you a different person when you grab the mic? Blu Ever since I started rapping it’s been an ease. Now the demand is building and the shows are getting bigger, I’m starting to get the butterfly jump-off. I didn’t even know what it was. I thought I needed to do a number two every time, but I didn’t – I realized it’s the butterflies, but I’m learning to get over them. Davide Bortot How about laying down tracks that are kind of personal? I’m not a rapper obviously, but I think it would really be strange to tell people you don’t know about your life? Blu It was easier when no one was listening. OK, just rap what you know, you know what I’m saying? It’s harder now, because they dig. You give them a little bit personal stuff and they want to dive into that some more. But it’s really personal, you know what I’m saying? But as an artist, you do give that up. As an entertainer, you have to give up a bit, so I’m not really tripping. I’ll
always be someone who raps from what comes from here. [touches heart] Davide Bortot Is this something you have to fight? Because some artists do interesting stuff when they’re young and not known, then they blow up and it gets boring because they think about too much about the perception of people. Is that something you think about when you write? Blu Not when I write. It was when I created music. Now I just go the opposite way from what everyone thinks. I’m going more lo-fi, more left. The second release, C.R.A.C., was way different from Below the Heavens. If I’d done Johnson & Jonson next, people would’ve been, “OK, we get where he’s going.” But that would’ve been misleading, like I’m going somewhere, but it was, [makes popping noise] “Where’s he going?” And that’s where I’m at. Davide Bortot Did you have to face any angry rap fans when you put that out? Blu Yeah, they’re out there. I don’t know what to do about that. What do you want? Listen to Below the Heavens again. Davide Bortot Do you follow what’s going on in hip-hop forums? Blu Yeah, people send me links all the time. I just got a link last week. Someone sent me one last week, “Yo, I’m not trying to bring no drama your day, but Royce Da 5’9” just dissed you on his new album.” He sent me an a capella. What is this? It’s all day, but I think it’s dope. It’s dope that so many people have a different opinion. Exile It was a different Blu. Blu Yeah, it may be a different Blu. As far as Royce Da 5’9”, it may not be official. He just said something about Blu and he’ll destroy you. But there’s other Blus. Davide Bortot And in the end who would care? Exile Ex kind of cares. [laughter] Davide Bortot Could you imagine a dis that would really hurt you? Blu No, because I’ve gotten into some shit already and I’m over it. How much worse is it going to get? Davide Bortot How important is it for you to be accepted with what you do? With the history you have and the stuff you’ve been through, how important is it still for you to put music out there and reach people? Exile It’s very important because that’s the reason why I do it. I’m just trying to share with people what I’ve learned and if they don’t accept that or enjoy that, then I wouldn’t be doing it. That’s a big part of it, connecting with everybody else what I’ve learned. Davide Bortot Do you ever wake up in the morning and think, “Let’s stop this, no more music, let’s get a day-job.” Exile Sometimes the pressure gets crazy because, being an independent art, you’ve got be part of the label and on at them. Sometimes I think I’ve got to be telling them what they should be doing, when I want them to be telling me. I go through the trouble of making the whole album and it’s definitely a wonderful thing, sometimes I reach low points while I'm making it, and then after it’s finished there’s all this other stuff to be done. That’s when you’re supposed to be celebrating. Sometimes you can turn into a lost soul in the time it takes for the record to come out. Sometimes I
think I should go up the gas station again and just live simple, but I wouldn’t be doing justice to myself and to the energies of the world becuase that’s where I’m supposed to be. Davide Bortot Hip-hop is all about the flossing and the bragging, even on a low level, but if some of them would work at a gas station or as a postman, they would make better money. Is that something you stress? When kids approach you and they’ve seen your video and think you’re a superstar and might be super rich, is that something you
can explain to people, that it’s actually quite hard? Exile If it comes up in conversation, I’ll be truthful. Honestly at the moment I’m living
month to month and there are times when I’ve got to do a MySpace hustle, sell some beats to pay rent. I need to tap into that money-making zone which is coming in ‘09 for sure. But yeah, it’s a struggle. But I’m gonna stay with it because it’s what I love to do. Davide Bortot Any last words? Audience Member Sorry can we hear one last thing. Sorry, but I really want to hear some more. Davide Bortot What from? Audience Member Anything. Exile I could do another live thing or I could play something off the Radio album. Audience Members Live, live! [applause] Exile Let me try to get the sound straight though, I don’t want to blow the speakers. [fiddles with the MPC] (music: Exile – unknown / applause) Audience Member Where else might we have heard some of your beats? Exile I’ve been a part of the group Emanon wth Aloe Blacc. Worked with Dr. Oop on some stuff, Mobb Deep, I was on Mobb Deep’s album. I did a song with Akon and Kardinal Offishall called “The Graveyard Shift.” On my album, I worked with a bunch of different artists on my Dirty Science record, from Ta’Raach to Oh No, to M.E.D., Ghostface, Slum Village. Let’s see, what else? Thank you so much for having us here, it’s such a wonderful thing to connect with all these musicians. Thank you so much. Davide Bortot Thanks for listening. Give it up once again for Blu & Exile.