Miles - Blu & Exile: Review
is the pairing of the California based rapper Blu and producer Exile. While they both have numerous projects under their belt their most well known and critically acclaimed records came together, particularly with 2007's Below The Heavens. Miles is their third collaboration together and their first in 8 years.
Review By Lavender:
I'm late on this record I know. I had it on my to-do list knowing that it was a comfortable 90+ minutes of material but the A.G. Cook record was almost twice as long and took quite a bit out of me. But I am now getting around to reviewing the record and I've been really excited about it because these two have made some very meaningful collaborations in the past. 2007's Below The Heavens is a big favorite of mine and I was excited for this record after hearing the singles and even more so after seeing the positive reception the album has been receiving from critics. Ultimately, while not all of this records enormous runtime is completely necessary, and the record sticks incredibly tightly to its jazz rap M.O, I think what the pair have presented here is fantastic.
This record is mostly highlights so this portion is going to be long but first we will take on tracks that I have nothing but positive thoughts towards. The opener Blue is a perfect way to get started with the triumphant soul samples that dust the instrumental and the inconceivable amount of creative ways that Blu manages to reference the color blue across the song. It is the shortest song here yet it serves as a mission statement for the record and the talent put into it is apparent and immense. When The Gods Meet once again features beautiful vocal samples but also a pretty smooth hook courtesy of Ishe. The song is rich with godly references and personal metaphors from Blu, it's a highlight that sounds just as heavenly as it's subject matter. True & Livin' is a punchy and uncompromising song with a great Exile hook. Blu channels Nas on his verses with a fiery flow that takes it's time but still never really lets you breathe. The track thematically challenges the listener to engage in the Ture & Living which is nothing necessarily new for rap but this song does a great job in all parts of making it sound like total bliss.
A track called Miles Davis that blends samples from both Miles himself as well as 2pac is basically the most conscious jazz rap thing I've ever heard and the song is smooth as hell. Despite it's simplicity the hook works perfectly and the whole thing works as a tribute to the man himself with a great instrumental and solid bars throughout. Music Is My Everything is one of the records longer tracks reaching over 6 minutes but I think it's totally awesome. Blu goes through his history with hip hop and how he personally arrived at rapping and what the spirit of rap means to him on the song and it's excellent when paired with a beat and female vocalist that all sounds straight out of the 90's. My favorite line on the song is when Blu's reverend stepdad tells him he can't listen to any secular music anymore, which I'm assuming didn't work too well. This song also has a Choosey feature here that fits perfectly and the whole track breezes by without feeling much of it's runtime.
The album hits a light snag after this and picks up with Miles Away a track with a groovy rich instrumental and an uptempo flow from Blu. All three of the verses are perfect and so is the CJ Armstrong hook making for another big highlight. Troubled Water features the records first sniff of reggae on the hook but it doesn't last very long as Blu returns with some of his hardest hitting bars on the entire record for the verses. The track has a ridiculously smooth beat switch that is one of the coolest pieces of production on the record and goes into making a great track. Roots Of Blue is the albums big 9 minute opus but despite an extended intro and outro it isn't a waste of time. Around two minutes in the verses kick off and they are some of the most sharply focused on the entire album as Blu explores the historical groups of people who he feels are his heritage. The first verse focuses on old African history while later verses go into more details on modern African-American struggles and influencers of the Civil Rights Movement. My favorite part of the song is the excellent verse four where he shouts out in prolific detail the black artists who influenced genres like jazz, soul, funk and hip hop. Even at over 9 minutes I liked this song a lot.
African Dream is the second track with strong reggae influences and this time the sound of the track matches it with one of the most unique and noticeable instrumentals here. As the title would imply Blu is once again exploring themes of African heritage here and it once again translates perfectly for another song I really enjoyed. Requiem Of Blue is a little 3 and a half minute track that comes out of nowhere to be one of my favorites on the entire album. It has a rich bright instrumental but it never feels like it's competing with Blu because he is bringing some of his strongest bars on the entire record with a lethal flow that has me hooked from the moment he starts rapping. The hook is also amazing and perfectly matches the rest of the track for a highlight that's easy to overlook this far into the album. The American Dream features Miguel on the hook who I didn't expect to see here and have never been a massive fan of but he kills it on this song. Blu compares his experience to the myth of the american dream with some pretty scathing critiques aimed at the philosophy behind it. He also accredits his success to his own hustle while mentioning how much he wishes he could give back for a complex and thought provoking track.
Dear Lord is a track with some obvious religious themes starting with the gospel inspired instrumental and warm hook. Blu describes a dream he had about what 2020 could have been that has a lot of parallels to John Lennon's Imagine with it's lack of religious conflicts and violence in general. While the song is structurally simple Blu's one verse has more than enough compelling versatility to it to make the track worthwhile. All The Blues is another song that shows off Blu's immense respect and admiration for Miles Davis. The first verse of the song tells the life story of Miles while the second verse is a more personal story of Blu's life that draws parallels between him and Miles, as well as noting how much Miles influenced him and his work, given that this album is called Miles the song is easy to get behind and a really strong highlight. Finally the closing track The End is a ridiculously good posse cut that opens up with some of the most ridiculously hard-hitting bars Blu spits across the entire album. This time around almost all of his guests are totally up for the challenge to with one killer verse after another spanning over 6 minutes and using up nearly all of it with fiery conscious bars that speak volumes with impactful performances.
While there are a few songs on here I don't love, there are also a couple mostly good tracks with a light flaw or two. The Feeling is a pretty good song where I once again can barely tell Blu apart from Nas as he performs his ass off with some incredibly honest bars that relate to the songs idea of "The Feeling". The only issue I have with the track is that it pushes 7 minutes long and has an extended outro that lasts longer than the core song itself. While I think a lot of what the spoken word sample that makes up this outro is saying is pretty interesting I feel like I've pretty much got the point around the 5 minute mark. Blue As I Can Be has an excellent first half that is reminiscent of 90's hip hop as Blu shouts out his city over some record scratches and chopped up vocals flying in every direction. The hook is built out of samples from a who's who of conscious rap lyricists which is an awesome moment of reflection. The second half of the song however contains an instrumental switch-up to a full on jazz band recording. While this is great to listen to it is a very challenging thing to rap over and Blu ends up competing with the sac quite a bit in this portion of the song. To The Fall, But Not Forgotten is a whole track themed around paying tribute to those who have passed away. The list of people is insanely impressive and the instrumental is solid, but it's one of the only songs here that feels gimmicky. The track is more of a fun experiment in lyrical progression and cultural awareness than an actual song but I still find it enjoyable.
Spread Sunshine is a short and very lowkey track. There isn't really anything actively bad about it I just don't know if it needed to be included. The instrumental is the best part and neither the verses or hook particularly stand out, everything on this song is just done better all over the record already. Bright As Stars is a posse cut that is deeper than it first appears and is one of the only tracks on the record where the guests take up more of the song than Blu. Despite Blu kicking it off with a great verse where he reminisces on growing up poor the surrounding artists don't quite live up to that same caliber and it makes for an unbalanced song. You Ain't Never Been Blue is a track that is interesting at first but whose philosophy doesn't last as long as its runtime. Blu seems to compare his struggles with race and gender to either his listeners of other rappers I'm not really sure. While the attitude is certainly confrontational and bold the actual sound of the song is just comfortable and kind of forgettable given how much Blu seems to be challenging listeners with his lyrics.
This thing is wonderful, Exile's rich jazzy instrumentals and catchy vocal samples are only outdone by the persistent energy and lyrical prowess of Blu's performances. So much of this record is completely fine-tuned and working from the talent of some veteran hip hop creators. With very few downsides the record amends it's long runtime with extremely focused songs that cover a wide variety of lyrical topics, and I think you'll be very hard-pressed to find a conscious or jazz rap album in 2020 that manages to do more with such a simple core formula than this, it is excellent. 8.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
I like the composition and the way the roots of the tree lead you to different parts of the image. It's a simple subject but makes itself complex with the way they chose to use it and that's great. There's something to be desired in the colors, something needs to be deeper and add some contrast and take your eyes off the small spots of neon green foliage. I love the small incorporation of orange in the palette but it needs a little more. The lack of text doesn't bother me as the plane is used to it's capacity very well. 7/10
For more conscious hip hop check out my review of R.A.P Ferreira's Purple Moonlight Pages here
