Hi everyone, Samthony Clamtano, the ocean's fishiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Blu & Exile album, Time Heals Everything.

This is a brand new record from West Coast producer-rapper duo Blu & Exile – in my personal opinion, one of the best duos to ever come out of the West Coast. They are responsible for 2000s classics like Below the Heavens, more modern classics like their record Miles, which I think is one of the best rap albums of the 2020s. I'm never going to pretend it's not.

For years now, these guys have continued to showcase an incredible amount of skill, and when it comes to hip-hop music that is thoughtful, that is topical, that is packed with all of these amazing jazzy and soulful loops and samples, it doesn't really get too much better than Blu & Exile.

However, with that being said, I'm kinda looking at this album wondering what it's really going to be adding to their respective catalogs right now, especially in the midst of a period for Blu that is proving to be very prolific, very busy. Like, for a time, it actually used to take quite a while for these guys to come back together and drop a new album. You would have to wait for years and years and years for such a thing to occur. But their last record that they dropped together actually just came out in 2024, Love (the) Ominous World, which I thought was actually a really impressive album for the both of them, even if it was maybe a tad bit predictable.

And in the midst of all of that, we also had this incredible 2024 run from Blu with Royal Blu, Out of the Blue, his abc project, his Los Angeles album (which was obviously a tribute to his home city). And this past year, we had his Forty album, where he was celebrating being 40 with August Fanon, and then his God Takes Care of Babies & Fools album with Myka 9 as well as Mono En Stereo.

I will admit, even as somebody who really cares for a lot of Blu's catalog, there has just been so much stuff, it's been hard to keep up. And while a lot of these projects, in my opinion, haven't necessarily been at a concept level or creativity level that I personally find to be career-defining, they each have their own distinct personality, and I still find it impressive that Blu is able to keep up this impressive level of output and still, for the most part, stay pretty consistent quality-wise.

And that is, for the most part, how I found the experience of this album to be – very good, even if it's not presenting what's necessarily a high watermark creatively for both them, or something that resets how I see each of their catalogs respectively. Which, in a way, I feel like is the cross to bear for just being so good and consistent. The opening track, "Soul Unusual," for example, not only features a quality beat but Blu really rapping his ass off. It's not bad, but also not mind-blowing either. It's almost like Blu & Exile have been at it for so long they make their talent level just sound so easy to pull off. However, I do think the following track, "Shoe Laces," does feature an ultra-smooth, forgettable chorus.

Maybe it's the lack of lyrical focus on the first couple of tracks that kind of really prevents this album from having a strong start, because as Blu is allowed to go more freeform and free association, his wordplay and one-liners don't seem to hit quite as hard, at least to my ears. It's more when he has a target to aim at that he is doing some of his best stuff.

Case in point, the following track, "Crumbs," which not only features a really great IceColdBishop feature – very yelpy, very hype, very energetic, one of the best appearances I think I've ever heard from him – as he and Blu work through a very understandable distrust of authorities, the court system, the drug war, the food industry. It's nice to hear artists voicing problems with these elements of our society without going, you know, full off-the-deep-end, RFK conspiracy, wormbrain kinda vibes. And maybe even a verse about the unease that people feel in this time period, how that's been kinda mainstreamed for the purpose of political division. That could have even been interesting.

Following this, we have the track "The Bag," which is obviously very much about money, which not only features a killer instrumental from Exile, but a lot of fantastic sample work, making a lot of different nods and references to various things in order to kind of give the listener all these different touchstones. Even that iconic little sitar lick from the Fugees' version of "Killing Me Softly."

And while this is far from the first song Blu has done about money – there's even the track "Money" from Give Me My Flowers... – but still, in terms of detail, in terms of humor and wordplay and production, Blu & Exile most definitely leapfrogged that track here. And it just sort of goes to show how great these guys have gotten at their respective crafts over time.

After this, we have the track "Hard Times," where Blu teams up with longtime friend Fashawn, and with an awesome verse from Exile on the track too. They all essentially go over the various struggles that they dealt with in their youths dealing with poverty.

Blu & Exile continue the quality run of tracks on this record with "I Don't Rhyme," where they draw a lyrical line in the sand between hip-hop artists and fans that are actually serious about this culture, this music, this art form, and people who are maybe just more casual about it, it's kind of a passing interest. Blu really wants to illustrate that he is the kind of artist who is living and breathing this music, not just somebody who is into this stuff when it's hot and popular, or somebody who claims to be a fan of hip-hop but is really just like a stan for one single artist.

It's from here, with this very trim album, that we move into what I feel is an okay final leg, but it did surprise me in some ways. First off, we have "In My Window" featuring ToBI, which is the best smooth and low-key cut on the entire record. It not only features a heart-wrenching, moving chorus, but this is one of those kind of strolling down memory lane, sentimental-type cuts from Blu, which he tends to do very well. And, of course, this is all helped by a very classy, rich, wonderful instrumental from Exile with some grand piano chords and some strings just kind of droning in the background. Just for that teary effect. Some reverby group vocals as well. It's just all a perfect recipe for this nostalgia soup, where Blu is going over the highs and lows in his life as a child, in the music industry, in prison, and eventually getting everything back on track to where he is now. While it's not the first time I've heard this guy bring up some of these topics or go over past events in his life, this is definitely one of the most touching instances of it so far.

Then we have the two closing tracks on this record, which going into it I thought were kind of like a shoo-in for highlights, a shoo-in for fantastic tracks really contributing to a blowout finish. But believe it or not, "T.S.O.D.," featuring not only Black Thought but Mach-Hommy too, doesn't really bring the kind of lyrical fireworks from these three that I was sort of hoping for. I mean, no one single person on this track gives a super poor or terrible performance, but it's all still just kind of there, with other tracks on this album and Love (the) Ominous World showcasing a lot more, I think, collaboration in terms of lyrical focus. And while "Time Heals Everything," I think, is a bit more thoughtful from a conceptual standpoint, the pacing and Blu's flows on this one I found to be a little too sluggish. And as far as title tracks go, this one is nowhere near, I think, as good or as explosive an experience as that from Love (the) Ominous World.

So Time Heals Everything, I think, is a very approachable, very quality, very decent hip-hop project from Blu & Exile, but it does feel a little standard, creatively, for them when it comes to the era of music they found themselves in, in the 2020s. And I do think it gets lost a little bit in the haze of projects Blu has been releasing as of late too. Still, with that being said, even though this record didn't blow my mind, if you enjoyed Blu & Exile's past couple of releases together, I see no reason why you won't still get a lot out of this. Which is why I'm feeling pretty much a decent 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano. Blu & Exile. Forever.