Rating:
  Review Date: September 10, 2007
  Website: Blu, Exile
  Label: Sound In Color

Blu & Exile “Below The Heavens” Album Review
I gotta give a huge shout out to the cats at Fat Beats Records for this one. They recommended Blu & Exile’s “Below The Heavens” over everything else they had on the shelf, and after listening to it, I understand why. I’ve never given five stars to a debut album before, but “Below The Heavens” definitely deserves it. This album is an example of lyricism and turntablism at its finest. Every song is tight, every beat perfectly matches the verse laid upon it, and the whole album just flows from track to track.

Dope Beats
Exile does an amazing job creating the perfect backdrops for Blu’s lyrics, as if he created each track to specifically match the given song topic. This is seen over and over again in the way Exile uses samples to create a supporting dialogue with Blu. Tracks like My World Is …, First Things First, Show Me The Good Life and Below The Heavens all contain a back-and-forth dialogue between Blu’s lyrics and Exile’s samples that allows the two to tell a story together. Other tracks, like The Narrow Path, So[ul] Amazin’, Juicen’ Dranks, Simply Amazin’ and Cold Hearted demonstrate Exile’s brilliant ability to create laid-back soulful hip-hop beats.

Dope Rhymes
And lyrically, Blu dropped an uncountable number of real and heartfelt verses discussing all kinds of topics representative of life “below the heavens.” When I normally review an album, I go through and write down my three favorite verses on which to base the review. With this album, I found myself typing out at least one verse per song that I wanted to feature. There are so many quotables in “Below The Heavens” that I had trouble picking just three to share with you.

In Remembrance of Me allowed Blu to reflect on several experiences and how quickly time has passed in his life. The following verse tells us about a lesson he learned while waiting for his career to blow:

See I remember when my folks said ‘You’ll know what I mean when you get older’/ I was only a teen thinking that I was a grown up/ Please, I had so much to see/ Thinking that the little that I saw was all this world had to offer to me/ At eighteen I headed off in the streets without guidance/ Just the eyes of God watching over me as time went/ I spent hours working 9 to 5s to survive/ Me and Jack up in the shack started hustling sacks/ Just to eat chips and soda/ Thinking we gonna blow up / Once this demo gets done/ We gonna be stretched out rich riding limos and such/ Boy I was just a dreamer/ Rocking shows like I went gold – you should’ve seen us/ We was full of youth not yet abused by time/ It’s like I saw the whole world through my rhymes/ It’s kinda crazy right? How time flies/

In Blu Collar Workers, Blu expresses the difficulty of maintaining personal relationships while trying to make it as an MC. The following verse tells of a love experience that suffered due to chasing dreams:

I’m trying to find a happiness that couples claim to be/ But it’s hard to balance loving when you busting over beats/ Sounds strange, but it’s hard to explain it over beats/ In the lab they be rocking two or three shows a week/ Going mad crazy stressing over pressing the release/ Trying to please labels while you keep your rep up in the streets/ At the same time trying to breathe/ And on your downtime trying to find a fine breeze/ But see I’m underground so now I gotta find cheese/ Just to take her out to dinner – just to eat/ And get a kiss upon the cheek/ And for me it’s even harder ‘cause I ain’t got a car to pick ‘em up in/ So chicks already think they put enough in/ Plus I’m kinda cute so it’s hard for them to trust him/ Asking what I’m doing every night / Like I be screwing every night/ Truth is I’m bruising every mic that I come across/ And every now and then drop a hundred off/ Just so you can fucking floss but that’s not enough for you/ So I take another loss wondering why I fucked with you/

In Dancing In The Rain, Blu talks about various stresses in his life, including being pressured by his girl and his label, and the difficulty of being down and depressed. But the whole time, he maintains the importance of staying positive and motivated – of dancing even when the rain is falling:

I say cool, but the truth is I’m stressing a grip/ Cause it’s hard to make music when this depression exists/ They say use it as inspiration – the best of them did/ But I just MC, I can’t handle this pressure for shit/ And if you ask me, stress is a bitch/ My girl needs more pretension and my record label’s desperate for hits/ Now I’m pissed ‘cause I’m getting out the zone again/ Makes me start to dread when I see a microphone and shit/ It ain’t supposed to be like that – I said ‘I’ll be right back’/ I left the office, got on the phone and called my partner Jack/ And I asked him, ‘Remind me why I’m rappin’’/ And right before he answered, I remembered my passion in the past/ When I was scribbling in my tablet/ To box out my mom and dad scrappin’/ To help me when my grandmother passed/ Plus the many times that I was homeless/ At the times that I was broke, this music made a way when I was hopeless/ He told me to remember the rain and to diminish the pain/ And he told me not to ask him again/

My favorite track was Show Me The Good Life, in which Blu spits a verse demonstrating the thoughts of a man who is soon to be a father:

I got a call from my girl last week/ She telling me about that time of the month and how it may not come/ Dropped the phone right before she said I might have a son/ And I started asking God how come/ I got dreams I ain’t reached yet – ends that ain’t meet yet/ When it comes to being a man, shit I’m barely getting my feet wet / Trying to hit reset knee deep in debt/ Trying to figure out how to feed a mouth that ain’t got teeth yet/ How the hell am I gonna show a child to be a man/ When I’m twenty-two without a clue on how to take a stand/ Against this system when it’s just us/ Wanna show ‘em justice/ But last year I was just in cuffs/ What the fuck am I supposed to do when he’s telling me ‘Dad I need some food’?/ I’m looking down at my stomach and mine is grumbling too/ What can I tell him when he’s twenty-two/ And he’s asking me what the fuck I was thinking when mommy’s tummy grew?/ Was I scared, was I getting prepared?/ Or did I even think of leaving her without a father’s care?/ Should I tell him that it’s hell here and life ain’t fair?/ Or should I try to make a change when he’s pulling on my leg?/

And the crazy thing is that this album has many more great verses that deserve quoting. I highly recommend picking up a copy and listening to them yourself. Blu & Exile’s “Below The Heavens” is my surprise pick for album of the year consideration in 2007. Whether you like lyrics or beats, this album has something for you. It should signify not only a great debut release, but also hopefully many more to come. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. My World Is …
2. The Narrow Path
3. So[ul] Amazin’ (Steel Blazin’)
4. Jucien’ Dranks (feat. Taarach)
5. In Remembrance of Me
6. Blu Collar Workers
7. Dancing In The Rain
8. First Things First (feat. Miguel Jontel)
9. No Greater Love
10. Show Me The Good Life (feat. Aloe Blac & Joseph)
11. Simply Amazin’
12. Cold Hearted (feat. Miguel Jontel)
13. The World Is (Below The Heavens) Pt. 1
14. The World Is (Below The Heavens) Pt. 2
15. I Am …
16. You Are Now In the Clouds With (The Koochie Monstas)