Blu and Exile Announce In The Beginning: Before The Heavens, a Prequel to Their 2007 Underground Classic, Releasing October 20th
Mass Appeal Premieres New Single “Constellations” as the Duo Prepares to Commence the Second Leg of Their 42-Date Headlining Below The Heavens: 10 Year Anniversary Tour
9.13.2017
Critical Praise
“The contemplative beauty of Exile’s beats fits Blu’s soul-searching perfectly on Below the Heavens.” – Pitchfork
“Blu and Exile’s Underground Classic Below the Heavens Changed West Coast Hip-Hop” – L.A. Weekly
“[Below The Heavens’] timeless production, raw vulnerability, and obscure mythology make the 2007 album a quiet classic.” – Noisey
The Announcement:
With his fluid, incisive rhyming style and his intellectual lyrics, L.A. rapper Blu found his ideal aesthetic match in the dusty, soulful beats of crate-digging producer/DJ Exile. Ten years ago, Blu and Exile released Below The Heavens, a contemplative, confident, and wistful masterpiece beloved by critics and embraced by the West Coast underground as an instant classic. Today, Blu and Exile proudly announce In The Beginning: Before The Heavens, a follow-up and companion piece to the classic record. Comprised of unreleased tracks from the original Below The Heavens sessions, In The Beginning captures the same ineffable energy of the original record. Today, the duo shares “Constellations,” an organ-driven boom-bap banger premiered by Mass Appeal, featuring some of Blu’s best bars of the project: “I’m showin you an older Blu in hopes that you embrace it/like a soldier do with gauges/Motor you through pages that I wrote for you/Laid it in the vocal booth/Press it up and sold it to the places that you go into.” With appearances from Aloe Blacc, Co$$, Donel Smokes, Blame One, and others, In The Beginning: Before The Heavens, coming October 20th via Dirty Science/Fat Beats, proves that the Below The Heavens style feels just as fresh in 2017 as it did in 2007.
“We planted the seeds of creativity and grew about 40 plants,” Exile says of the release. “We picked the ones that we thought were the best for an album, but that didn’t mean that the other flowers weren’t beautiful. I’m super happy to re-release [In The Beginning] to people and have it actually get some attention that it definitely deserves. It’s amazing.”
A former high school basketball star raised by a mother who hated rap music, Blu is an idiosyncratic and emotional rapper with a maverick sense of self-determinism. A well-respected producer in the L.A. underground, Orange County native Exile produced tracks for the likes of Mobb Deep, Kardinal Offishal, Jurassic 5, and others before teaming up with Blu for their fruitful partnership. Released in Summer 2007, Below The Heavens received rave reviews from tastemakers and appeared on many year-end best-of lists. The momentum from Below The Heavens led to Blu’s signing to Warner Bros. Records, and propelled the young rapper onto the 2009 XXL Freshman List alongside B.o.B, Kid Cudi, and Wale. In 2012, Blu and Exile reunited for Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, expanding the palette of Below The Heavens and showcasing Blu’s multi-syllabic dexterity. Separately, the duo continued to make music, with Blu releasing countless mixtapes, most notably York, which received an 8.1 from Pitchfork, and collaborated with the likes of Madlib and Nottz. Exile remains an in-demand producer in the West Coast scene, forming Emanon, a duo with Aloe Blacc, and producing records for rappers such as Wiz Khalifa & Snoop Dogg, Big Sean, Fashawn, and Pharaohe Monch.
In addition to the new album, Blu and Exile announce the extension of the Below The Heavens 10 Year Anniversary Tour, which finishes its West Coast leg in Seattle on September 13th. Embarking on September 26th at Beauty Bar in Las Vegas, the 10 Year Anniversary Tour continues for 29 headlining dates spanning from Salt Lake City to Miami. Featuring support from L.A. underground stalwarts Dag Savage, Choosey, Cashus King (fka Co$$), and Pistol McFly, tickets for the tour are on sale now.
Pre-order In The Beginning: Before The Heavens: https://bluandexile.
Pre-order a physical copy of In The Beginning: Before The Heavens: https://www.fatbeats.com/
Listen to “Constellations”: https://
Check out the premiere of “Constellations” on Mass Appeal: https://massappeal.
Buy tickets for the Below The Heavens 10 Year Anniversary Tour: http://thedirtyscience.
Please contact Michelle or Isabel for more info.
Blu & Exile Background
In 2007, the same year that Kanye vs. 50 Cent in an album sales battle dominated headlines in the mainstream, Blu and Exile were carving their own path with an instant classic. The rapper and DJ/producer duo released Below the Heavens: In Hell Happy With Your New Imaginary Friend on July 17. Featuring soul-infused production with the raw vulnerability of Blu’s rhymes, the album began to receive rave reviews by hip-hop tastemakers and underground enthusiasts. In a review penned by 2DopeBoys’ Shake for HipHopDX, he gave it a 4/5 and noted that Blu is an “an extremely talented lyricist; clever rhymes, technically sound, intensely personal and witty.” Below the Heavens impacted everyone in some way, as it would later end up on many critics’ year-end lists from all over the internet.
2017 marks the 10-year anniversary of Below the Heavens. One of the interesting tidbits about the album is Blu and Exile made over 40 songs, with only 15 of them making the final cut. Now, the duo is reuniting for their third release, In the Beginning: Before the Heavens, a collection of the best tracks from the original sessions. “I’m super happy to re-release it to people and have it actually get some attention that it definitely deserves,” Exile says. “It’s amazing.”
Links:
Blu: twitter | tumblr | bandcamp | instagram | spotify
Exile: official site | twitter | instagram | facebook | spotify
“Constellations”: https://
Pre-order In The Beginning: Before The Heavens: https://bluandexile.
Below The Heavens 10 Year Anniversary Tour: http://thedirtyscience.
Below The Heavens: https://itunes.apple.
Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them: https://itunes.apple.