Anthony Fantano: Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you are doing well. I feel like I'm running a bit of a marathon today. Interview, review, interview, review, content, content, content, coming in all directions. Right now, I'm doing a bit of a pit stop to have an exclusive conversation with two of the greatest from the West Coast, the one and only rapper Blu, and producer Exile, who've come together again for a brand new record, Love (the) Ominous World. I'm loving it. I hope you guys are loving it, wholeheartedly or ominously, however way you want. We're going to talk about the new record and anything else that comes up in the conversation as well. Guys, thank you for coming through.

Blu: Man, thank you for having us.

Exile: Yeah, man. Great. Thank you for having us.

AF: Of course. I've been cooling it on the interviews as of late, but I figured this record was enough of an occasion to get a conversation going. Especially since we talked around the last record, Miles, as well.

Okay. I want to start this conversation off just by mentioning a bit of context with Blu, because you and I, I believe we had some DMs or a few emails back and forth right at the end of last year or something, I think as we were transitioning into 2024, and you were just like, 'Man, I'm going to drop five albums this year. Get ready.' You've been dropping a lot lately, but you're going to do five or so projects this year? That's insane. And you're keeping to that promise. To what do we owe this really insane prolific streak all of a sudden?

Blu: Oh, man. I would say the birth of my son, man. I had my son, my first son, and I just went into overdrive, you know what I mean? With the music.

AF: Usually people, they have kids and then they slow down.

Blu: Yeah, true. For me, I have another mouth to feed, man. You know what I mean? I get it going.

AF: Right. I get it. Okay. So you've to maximize output just for the results?

Blu: Yeah, in ways. This is what I do. I stay busy in the studio. So I just turned it up, you know what I mean?

AF: Right. Okay. Well, I mean, the results are showing. What in the midst of this blizzard of records made you decide, we've got to fit in Exile in one, too?

Blu: Oh, man. Me and Exile started cooking right after Miles.

AF: Okay. Okay.

Blu: Yeah, we're sitting on some heat, man. You know what I mean? We dropped and we just dropped the album. You know what I mean? But we're still staying busy. You know what I mean? That's just how we work. We take some time off, but this time we didn't. We Right to it. I got right to it.

Exile: I got to have a baby. Get more output that way.

AF: Now you've got to match him, so then you could both be just putting out your most consistent stuff, just over and over and over.

Exile: Let's do it.

Blu: Hell, yeah.

AF: You guys started working together and started to, or kept on working on stuff immediately after Miles. At what point did all of this material or some of the material start to stick out to you as this is like, album level. This is some album stuff. This needs to come together into a record because I imagine if you're working on tracks together freely, and this is a pretty tight-focused album. This isn't as maybe as free form as Give Me My Flowers is, for example. You got a lot of tight, focused, topical tracks, many of which you're reflecting on your past on a lot of them. At what point did these tracks start to materialize together as the album that it is now?

Blu: What do you think, Ex? When did we put the tracklist together? The first tracklist.

Exile: Man, we just made a whole bunch of songs, and when we came up with the title of the album, I felt like we-

Blu: Started crafting the songs.

Exile: We started crafting more songs around it.

AF: What about the title started to guide the tone of the song? What does Love (the) Ominous World, message-wise, mean to you guys that said to you, We need to start writing songs around or bringing together songs that fit around that idea, that energy, that emotion?

Blu: For me, it was more so like we were titling a majority of the songs we had. And then once we got the title, we put some more songs in there to fill it in. But the title means to persevere through all the ups and downs and the struggles that the world may throw your way. All the adversities to stay strong through it and keep your love first.

Exile: The world is crazy. The world is whack, if you will, but love it anyway.

Blu: Even if you know Trump is about to blow it up, you know what I mean? Just have faith and shit.

AF: That's what I was about to say. That track, specifically off the record, feels almost like one of the most hopeless moments on the album because it's almost like an end time. It's an apocalypse scenario. It's just everything and everybody's in survival mode on

Blu: Definitely. It's the end of the world, man. It's just of the ominous world. The drama that can go down, that we can face it.

Exile: You get out of balance. There's so many different ways going out of balance, even with hip hop music or that can affect the world, really. Just trying to be part of maintaining the balance.

AF: As you guys were starting to come together with tracks for the album, I'm interested in the way this flows because you guys have a really unique chemistry together in terms of Blu's topical focus, but also, Exile, your ability to instrumentally complement whatever it is a particular song may be about. I mean, just talking about that track, specifically, there is a really tense, aggressive, chaotic energy to that song. Meanwhile, other tracks that take on a different tone are also like, soundtracked or complemented perfectly with what you're doing. And I just wanted to know where exactly those intentions lie between the both of you. Is Blu being inspired by a tone or esthetic, or instrumental palette that you're working with, and that's inspiring a song idea, or is he bringing an idea, and you're like, 'Oh, I think I have a vibe, or an energy, or a melody for that', or something, or a beat that could fit.

Blu: It was both. It was like, Exile shot me some topics, like a song called "Precipitation". Exile was like, 'Man, I think you should do a song called "Precipitation"'. And that's what happened. We made that joint. He wrote the hook on "Homies". Exile wrote the hook on "Homies". So it's like, we throw ideas back and forth. A lot of times I'll write and record to his beats, and once we get the songs that we like, then we go in and Ex really perfects the song. I would say Ex is the biggest perfectionist I know.

AF: I actually wanted to ask you about that track, "Precipitation" specifically, because the funniest thing about that song, or what strikes me the hardest about it, is how you kick it off because you're literally like, 'Man, I never thought I'd write a song like this.' I wanted to know, according to you, what is that kind of song, or what is a song like this? What about that song did you feel like you'd never write? But then you find yourself doing it.

Blu: It's about precipitation.

AF: Just literally a song about rain. Maybe it's something that you thought about before.

Blu: I meant to talk about rain before. "Dancing in a Rain" is our biggest song. Sure.

Exile: But it's all about personifying it into his troubles.

Blu: Just what ended up becoming of me sitting down writing a song called "Precipitation", it was like, 'Dang, we did it.'

AF: At this point, with all of your experience and your ability to pull off tracks like this, I don't know. It's just funny. It seems like you approach a lot these ideas as if… Not even the way that a traditional rapper would. It's like you're approaching it like you're doing the most fun writing exercise. You're taking a class, and a professor is giving you a really tough challenge, and you're trying to get the best grade out of anybody in the class. It feels very studious is what I'm saying.

Blu: That's what's up, man. I didn't graduate, so that's a huge compliment for me. You know what I mean?

AF: It really does feel like you're putting a school-level grind into… You're really trying to get high honors off of your capacity to dive into these topics.

Blu: Trying to get my degree through hip hop, through rap and that shit.

Blu: I think it's possible. I think you're getting close.

Exile: Dr. Blu.

Blu: Hell yeah.

AF: There's another thing about this album, vibe-wise, that I thought was interesting because I think the three other major records that you guys have done together up until this point are all very vastly different in terms of vibe and topical focus and approach and what you guys do with each of them overall. And this album, by contrast, almost felt almost familiar. It felt like visiting an old friend. It felt like memories. Did you guys feel like you were almost, rather than doing something wild or completely experimental, you were more sliding into a groove and doing something that just felt like, I don't know, nostalgic or sentimental?

Blu: For me, this was the most fun record we've done.

AF: Really?

Blu: Yeah, I felt like... Even in terms of the music we were creating was fun. It has a fun vibe to it more so than the seriousness of Miles. So for me, this was our most fun record. I didn't put much pressure on myself when it came to the writing. Exile didn't pressure me as much. It was easier than other albums we've done. I think because of just the chemistry we've built, and the trust we've built.

Exile: I think it is familiar in the sense of you know what to expect from a Gang Starr album, and it's like, you want that also. So I think we did make an attempt to give you what is familiar with Blu & Exile, maybe from all the different styles that we do have, but also attempt to be progressive at the same time. And also give some familiarity in some lost LA or West Coast sounds through some of the production.

AF: Bouncing off of what Blu just said, what does he mean, you're going easier on him with the songs and with the writing? I'm sorry, are you a hard ass on him in the studio? With this new album, are you letting certain things slide that you would normally give him a hard time about?

Blu: Rewrite lines, rewrite songs, re-record the verse 20 times. This time, he was more lenient with me. Like, 'All right, that was dope. Let's go. Keep it pushing.'

Exile: Yeah. Well, I've learned I don't know when to fall back and allow things to happen a lot more for sure.

AF: Okay, good. So there's less fighting in the studio is what you're saying.

Blu: Yeah, yeah. You don't get a skit like, 'Exile hates me, but his beats love me.' You know what I mean?

AF: I also wanted to ask you about just a lot of the time on this record that you personally spend, just looking back and reflecting on stuff. I mean, while this album does feel familiar, and it does feel, in a way, almost like something we've heard before simultaneously, you are going back on a lot of history that you're bringing a new light to, and stuff that, to a lot of fans, you're uncovering, stuff people didn't even know in terms of stuff you've done, and the twists and turns your career has taken up until this point. I imagine some people have been following you for a minute now who, to them, the No York, Warner Bros era may even be just lost history because that was just such a chaotic time in your career and your progression where it was touch and go for a little bit there. I also wanted to know what was it that made you want to drive back? And rather than pushing forward like you typically do on every record, you're like, I'm going to talk more about my career. I'm going to talk more about my life trajectory that brought me up until this point.

Blu: I seem to reflect a lot more when I work with Exile, go through my experiences. It's like the cleanup batter. You know what I mean? You got the first three batters, and then you got the cleanup. Who's there to hit the grand slam.

Exile: Are you talking about frying fish?

Blu: Bring everybody in. No, the batter.

AF: Oh, the batter. I thought he'd meant like, fish batter.

Blu: Clean up hitter. That's what it's called, right?

AF: Right, right. I think so.

Exile: Swing batter.

Blu: Jose. The fourth batter in baseball is the cleanup hitter, right? Yeah. Because it's the three bases, and then the guy comes up in- Yeah, for the grand slam. Yeah. Boom, boom.

Exile: Not fried fish

Blu: There you go.

AF: So, in that respect, what made you want to, I guess, dig through moments like the Suge Knight story, for example, where you're taking this potential shift in your career where, 'Oh, I might go this way, or I might sign here, But instead, I zag instead of zigging.'

Blu: What made me do a song about it?

AF: Yeah. I imagine, what about that experience or what about working with Exile on this record made you think like, 'Oh, this needs to be on this album since I'm going back and reflecting on this stuff?'

Blu: It's pretty much the event that happened, the major event that happened right before I met Exile. As far as my career goes, it puts you in perspective of right before meeting Exile, and everybody knows, or all our fans know the history from that point on. It was just a little glimpse into the history before we met and where we were. And Exile came up with that idea, too. People have been asking me in interviews about it, and Ex was like, 'Man, you should just do a song about it.' Because people have been bringing it up in interviews so much. So it was like, 'Yo, let's just do a song about it.'

AF: And what I also found to be interesting, and obviously, I talked about this in the review, but I thought it was awesome how you sandwiched the track with Kurupt, and Kxng Crooked, and RBX. When did that idea come through? You obviously have the story, you have the song idea, and you may even have the song, but you're like, 'Oh, we need to lead into this with a really genius contextual reference and then go into it.'

Blu: That was all Exile, bro.

Exile: We've been wanting to work with Kurupt. We talked about working I mean, "Crooked I". After he did the song, it just seemed perfect. And Blu has history with RBX even before meeting me, right? He was on RBX's album as an 18-year-old, and I'm like, 'Yo, let's get RBX on this track and get Kurupt.'

Blu: Bring the whole Death Row family back. You know what I mean?

Blu:Yeah, it was a perfect way to tie in around the Suge Knight story and connect the dots there. And plus, just to reconnect with the OGs.

AF: I also have to ask this, though. Again, it's a creative idea, and it's a crazy idea. But what exactly happened with the literal Kurupt verse? Because obviously, that's an insane transition. The verse gets so fucking hyper-aggressive and insane that the song itself breaks down, and the verse itself becomes like a skit transition into the next track.

Exile: I had to hold him back because he was trying to punch through the window. I was like, 'No, man, stop it right now!'

AF: Seriously?

Blu: No, we're just fucking around. Kurupt sent us the verse, but still, he bodied that shit, man.

Exile: He's a good actor.

AF: And was the idea from the outset to use it as a means of transitioning to the next track, or was that just something that came up on the fly?

Exile: It came up on the fly. It just worked perfect. We put them on acappella, and it was still going on time with the next track, and we're like, 'This is it right here.' When we heard it like that, we're like, 'Oh, shit. Oh, yeah.' Like, 'Oh, this is going to be crazy.' It's crazy because in my head, it was like, how these are all transitioning to me personally was really dope to me and Blu.

Blu: Yup.

Exile: It's nice when that gets recognized, and everybody's talking about how those songs all came together in the album, how they come together in sequence.

Blu: And man, Fantano, everybody loves smack, bro.

Exile: Oh, yeah.

AF: No, I love the attention to detail that you guys have on the record with the features. I mean, even with going back to "Homies", did you have have in mind already what Cassius Clay and Pistol McFly were going to bring to the table when you did that track? Like, 'Oh, we need this to reference back into their connections with me and turn it into a trifective, just personal connections and friendship.'

Blu: That was just a coincidence, man. Everybody just wrote and brought that connection to the table.

Exile: But it was an obvious choice to have Cassius because Cassius has been Blu's boy since day one, since I first met him. Since I first saw Blu in person, he was with Cassius. So of course, if we're going to have somebody, a homie on the track, it's going to be Cassius.

Blu: Hell, yeah. And shout out to Pistol, too.

Exile: Yeah, and then Pistol, yeah. Just from running with us on the road and whatnot, and we had to get him on the track, too.

AF: So I wanted to ask you, not only do you spend a lot of time on this record reflecting, but you also spend a lot of time, especially at the end of the record, teasing forward to the future. You learn to love the world and exist within its chaos and everything, but you're also saying you feel like the best is yet to come for you personally as an artist. What do you feel like the next thing is now that you've taken this personal, reflective breather moment on this album to look back and paint a current day picture of yourself? What's the next thing that you want to do or achieve or try for that sees you pushing forward as opposed looking back?

Blu: Wait, you said what's next for us?

AF: Either together or solo for either of you, just because, again, there are quite a few bars on the record where you feel like your career has been very turbulent and eventful up until this point, but you feel like the best is also yet to come for you, for you personally and creatively. What do you feel like is coming down the road for you, or what do you want to try next that sees you pushing on to the next thing as opposed to looking back?

Blu: We're sitting sitting on some heat, man. You know what I mean? We're looking forward to dropping it for people.

Exile: We're still working. I tell you this, what we have together to come is...It's smashing this record, even, man. I'm telling you. What he said that you were asking him in that line is very true to me, for me.

Blu: Yeah. Sitting on that heat, man. You know what I mean?

AF: Okay. Okay.

Blu: We don't want to reveal too much. We just dropped the album. We want people to soak it up.

AF: Right, exactly. How much time you're planning on performing and sitting on this record before you move on to the next thing? Because this is also, I feel, a pretty dense album that people probably need time to digest.

Blu: Yeah. Well, me personally, my run that I went on this year, I'm planning on doing the same thing next year.

AF: Really?

Blu: Yup.

Exile: And we're going to not have such a long break between Blu & Exile albums as well.

AF: Okay. I mean, obviously, earlier in the conversation, you talk about, obviously, your child and just the personal stuff that's driving you to just beyond that grind and beyond that consistency. But is there anything else, I don't know, music industry-wise or artistically that you feel like is motivating that decision? Do you feel like there's a void for what you guys do and you're trying to fill it? Or do you feel like the way people consume things on the internet these days, music-wise, is just requiring you to put out more in order to hold people's attention?

Blu: It's actually all of that, bro. It's all of that. Mainly for me, it's the joy of creating. Right now, I have an immense joy of creating. I just decided to make all my dreams come true with making music. You know what I mean? And that's what I've been doing. And it's the streaming platform, the attention span now of the listener. And it's just a change of pace that's been forming that I'm keeping up with or staying ahead of.

Exile: When I see him working, it's like... I mean, I work, but for him, it's like someone getting up to go to the gym or something, he's just fucking writing. He's just so... This fool is so prolific. It's crazy.

Blu: Yeah, good looks, man.

AF: No, it's just really crazy because as somebody who's been a passionate music fan since the '90s. The types of album gaps that I'm used to with my favorite artists, or even between you guys with Flowers and Miles, for example, it feels like that's becoming more and more of a rarity. The idea of having to wait for a new album from an artist that you like for so long just seems like it's going to go out with the dinosaurs as we move forward. More and more and more like what you're doing this year, and probably next year, is going to become more like the model.

Blu: Yeah. I mean, well, you got to look at it like in the '90s, you weren't listening to five albums every Friday.

AF: Exactly.

Blu: So the pace is just way crazier now with streaming.

AF: And do you feel like being conscious of that, does that make you approach writing or songwriting any differently than you used to, or is it really just a matter of just, I just need to come up with more output?

Blu: It's more so that it's... I'm more comfortable with my writing now. It's a lot easier for me to write a verse, to write a song now. Before, it was too strenuous. It would become very strenuous. It would take me weeks to come up with a song as opposed to a day. I could knock out a song in a day. I could knock out a verse in an hour, you know what I mean? As opposed to taking all day to write the verse, taking a week to write a verse. Now it's like my pace is an hour a verse.

AF: And even with the song as detailed as "Precipitation", with all the angles that you're coming at that topic with.

Exile: How long did that one take you?

Blu: A day. Yeah. Yeah, I knocked that out in a day. Yeah, I knocked that out in a day. Not an hour. About an hour a verse, yeah.

AF: And do you feel like this is mostly due to just your experience that you're bringing to the table up until this point, or has some other switch flipped that's brought you there?

Blu: The switch of overdrive from having my son as well as the experience that I've accumulated, that has helped me write to put my words down on paper easier.

Blu: And not to encourage you, a rapper, to brag. I mean, when would a rapper ever brag? But to be frank, to be honest, there are a lot of artists who, to one degree or another, have been doing it as long as you've been doing it, if not longer. And yet we're not seeing that same increase in capability happening along the same timeline. What's separating you from those other people to where at the age that you're at, you're pulling your shirt off and you're ripped, and then you're writing a whole verse in an hour with so many triple entendras and wordplay and so and so forth, and other people are like, 'I don't know.' And they're perspiring and they're heavily breathing with the pen like, 'I'm trying to just finish this one sentence.' What's brought you to that point after all this time? But other people aren't working up to that same pace.

Blu: Hunger, man. Trying to get to that position that they're at. You know what I mean? Trying to get there, man. Been trying to make it since '07.

AF: And what to you at this point do you feel defines making it?

Blu: For me, buying a crib. I just got to buy a crib, and then I'll chill out on you.

AF: Okay. All right. Well, my fingers are crossed that you're able to get there with all the output that you're coming through. I mean, it's like, are we getting close? Are we inching forward?

Blu: I thought you was about to say, well, I hope you don't get the crib so you can keep-

AF: No, I want to see you do well. I want to see you be happy. I want to see you be relaxed. I want you to chill. I want you to be able to put kick your feet up a little bit.

Blu: Hell, yeah. I will get there.

AF: Okay. No, believe me, I don't want you to have to over-exert yourself for too long.

Blu: Hell yeah. You know I'm not keeping this pace forever. Definitely not. I'm not going to be dropping five a year for too long. You know what I mean?

AF: Like I said in the review, I'm trying to keep up with you. I haven't reviewed every single thing that you've come out with. I turned around, there's another one. I need to do a compilation and bring them all together in just one larger commentary. But I'm going to try to keep tabs on as much of it as I can.

Blu: Appreciate that, man. Definitely.

AF: So I mean, Exile, from this point, are you just mostly focusing with Blu on the next thing that you guys got to do together, or do you also have some other Irons in the Fire that you're trying to work on at the moment, too?

Exile: Yeah, I have some other projects that I'm trying to get going with some other artists, but I'm definitely super excited to put all the finishing touches on the next joint with Blu, for sure.

AF: Okay. Do you guys have some dates coming up and everything that people can be on the lookout for?

Exile: We're just taking a break from tour right now. We're going to be playing in New York...

Blu: Minneapolis, Chicago.

Exile: Denver. We got a European tour coming up. Go to @exileradio on Instagram and click the link to find the tour dates and to get merch.

Blu: @bluherfavcolor on IG.

Exile: Dirtysciencerecords.com. Get that merch. Help Blu get a house.

Blu: Help Blu get a house.

AF: All right. Is there anything else that we should be looking forward to in the immediate future before I let you guys go?

Exile: There's still a little secret message in our title that fans have not got. Really?

Blu: One fan has got it.

Exile: Really?!

Blu: Yeah. They found the hint. I'm going to say it later. They don't know what it means yet, but they found it.

AF: Okay, shit. Is there, I don't know, a bit of an Easter egg or breadcrumb trail that people can look into a certain track for or something? Is there a hint somewhere?

Blu: It's in the title.

AF: So the thing is the title, but the hint is also in the title?

Exile: Yeah, and also the group name, Blu and Exile also.

AF: Okay. So are there any other nudges or winks you want to throw out in regards to that, in terms of people figuring it out?

Exile: It's visual.

Blu: It's visual. They'll get it in time. If they don't get it now, they'll get it in time.

AF: Okay. All right. Okay. People are looking... Okay. Chat caught the message. I'm sure there's going to be some people who are on the trail now. We have some musical sleuths in the chat who are going to be on that. So we'll figure it out. All right. Hold on a second. Someone in chat is saying, B, Low, Blu & Exile, B, low, Blu & Exile, be low, love the world, the heavens. Is that close? I don't know.

Blu: They're working on it.

AF: They're working on it. They're turning it like a Rubik's Cube. They're figuring it out. They're getting close. All right. Listen, I appreciate you guys coming through and going over the record with me and just give me a bit of an update on everything that you guys have been doing and where you're at now. We're excited about the album and everything coming down the pipe. And again, just thank you guys for just being conversational and letting us know everything that we got to know.

Blu: Man, thank you for having us, man. It's always a pleasure.

AF: All right. Have a good one, you guys. You're the best.

Exile: Take it easy, bro.

AF: All right. Bye.