Episode 12 - Blu And Exile

Episode 12 of Lemme Ask You This with Talib Kweli and Tef Poe features Blu and Exile. We start by introducing Blu and Exile and getting into a conversation about their new album, Time Heals Everything. Talib asks about Blu and Exile's relationship with Fashawn and shares Fashawn stories. Blu and Exile explain how the online leak of Below The Heavens helped make that album successful and then talk about how it was inspired by Reflection Eternal. The conversation then begins to center on west coast hiphop luminaries like King Tee and Self Scientific. Blu and Exile break down the making of their song Dancin' In The Rain. Exile talks about selling mixtapes while being in a group with Aloe Blacc, which leads to Talib sharing a story about a bus trip to California in 1995. Blu talks about how he stays so prolific and then gets into a story about how he almost signed to Death Row. Tef Poe asks Blu and Exile about how they keep their musical reputation so in tact, which leads to a discussion about their love for jazz music. Talib asks Blu if having the name Blu has ever created an issue for him with LA gangs. Blu breaks down his friendship with Miguel. Exile talks about his Exile Radio albums which leads to a discussion about his spirituality. Tef asks Blu and Exile to give an advice for people who want to follow in their path. Talib asks Blu about his album with Nottz, Africa. Blu talks about working with Med and Madlib and Exile goes deeper into his relationship with Aloe Blacc. Talib asks Blu and Exile how they are able to stay so connected with Los Angeles' underground hiphop scene. 

Shot and Edited By Chino Chase. Additional Filming By Aaron Ross Media Co.

Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@lemmeaskyouthispodcast

Threads https://www.threads.com/@lemmeaskyouthispod

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lemmeaskyouthispod/

Substack https://lemmeaskyouthis.substack.com/

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@lemmeaskyouthispodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Which side are you? You don't defense. Get on the fence. Which side are you? Stands defense.

SPEAKER_05 0:12

Make some noise for blue, yeah. Live at the blue note with the quality band. What? Y'all know what it is. How y'all feelin' out there? Y'all feelin' good? Don't nobody wanna dance slow in the rain. Move your ass. Move your ass. Hold up. Don't nobody wanna liberate the weight of the pain. Move your ass. Move your ass. Check it out, yo. It's six o'clock, I'm poppin' out of the bed. Rain falling calling quality, but my phone in the bed. I guess my bills ain't paid. I wanna work with it. What's the getting up to place with a stitch winna for the lady? My balls should be cuz I'm gonna lady no wisdom. Yo my book to be twenty two when I'm away from the sweet. Move your ass. Check it. I hate taking trips to the lab. Got my pen and pad, booking instrumentals and smash, catch the bus regardless. Trying hard to be an artist, but my hating on be calling me out my zone and to his office, being cautious. He don't want my record to break. Asking me how I think my projects progressin' and shit. I said, cool, 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. That's a damn thing. I can't handle this pressure for shit. And if you asking me, stress is it. My card needs more attention and my record labels, desperate for hits. Now I'm pissed. Be getting out the zone again. Makes me start to dread when I see a microphone and broke. Instead I'll be right back. They left the office. Get a phone and call my partner jack. And I answered. Don't really want to wrap it. Right before we answer, they remember my passion in the past. Scribbling in my tablet to box up my mama dad's scrapping. They help me with my grandmother fast. Plus the baby to me when I was hopeless. And the times when I was broke, the music made away when I was hopeless. They told me to remember the ring. It'll diminish the pain. Then they told me not to ask him again. Cause I know it. Don't nobody wanna dance the ring. Move your ass. Hey, move your ass. Come on. Don't nobody wanna liberate the way to the pain. Move your ass. Move your ass. Bruno, thank y'all for rocking with me. My name's PL Yo.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

This guy comes through for me every time.

SPEAKER_06 3:35

What's up, y'all? We're back with another exciting, provocative episode of Let Me Ask You This. Exciting. Today. Provocative. Well, let me let y'all know who I am before I get to doing too much talking. I'm Tef Poe, and I'm here with my partner in Ryan, my Cody, Talib Kwali. What's good? What's good, Tef Poe? Man, I'm having a great time. We're out in Los Angeles. Yeah, man. Capturing some content. Just had a phenomenal show. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

We're capturing some art, man. Content is like content. I like that. I like that. Yeah, content. Anything is content. I could, you know, but art, art is what we're capturing, man, because we've had an amazing experience with a lot of different artists on stage at the Blue Note. And um, and we're keeping it going, we're keeping the party going. Yeah, you can't.

SPEAKER_06 4:21

I want to applaud Talib because he just put on a masterful show last night, which was really a display to the power of hip-hop. Uh, and he brought out uh an assortment of guests, and we're gonna have a couple of them in this interview today, but uh he brought out an assortment of the who's who uh talent last night, and it was amazing, man. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Oh, that's just the circle, man. That's just the friend group, you know what I'm saying? That's just the group chat. I just brought out the group chat, you know what I'm saying? That's your group chat, man. That's the group chat. Um today we have some esteemed guests, some musicians who have changed the world with their music, some musicians who have a deep, deep musical connection, and they put out music individually, they put out music together. But today we are blessed and honored to have them together. And if you a fan of their music, you are going to really enjoy this interview because we're gonna dive deep. Ladies and gentlemen from California, we have Blue and we have Exile. Show your love.

SPEAKER_05 5:23

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Create Giants, man.

SPEAKER_06 5:26

Come on. It's an honor to do that. How y'all feeling today?

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Good, good, man. Good, man, good. Thank you for doing this. Oh, yeah. Thank y'all for always coming through. When I ask y'all to come through. Oh man, come on, man.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Appreciate you having us, man.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

No doubt. No more. Um, y'all are here because y'all, well not y'all here because y'all the homies, but y'all are here because there is a y'all together because there's a new record. Oh Time Heals Everything. Yes, yes. The new record. Tell us about the new record.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

New album. Time Heals Everything. Yeah. Let's go. Blue in Exile. Let's go. You know what I mean? It's going down. We just dropped a single today, you know what I mean, featuring Rome Streets and Ice Cold Bishop called Crumbs. Uh, our first single, Soul Unusual, just dropped, and we're gearing up for the album drop, man.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Now, Rome Streets, he's from Brooklyn, right? I believe so. He's in the video for Peppers with me and West Side Gun and Yassine. And me and him were supposed to connect on some music from back then, but we haven't connected yet. But you got Rome Streets on the project. Rome Streets. Ice Hole Bishop, I'm not familiar with him. Um, his voice sounds crazy though.

SPEAKER_05 6:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Where's he from?

SPEAKER_05 6:31

He's from uh LA. Okay. Yep, crazy with it.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

We got more features though, too. We might as well talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Let's talk about all well. First of all, the beats are amazing is you the beats are yeah. The beats are more aggressive on this one.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Word, word, word.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

I could dig it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

What do you attribute that to?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Hmm. Well, I don't know, maybe because people always expect uh uh you know a certain sound from us, and I just wanted to show my diversity because you know I got all kinds of different types of beats.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

So wanted to display some of those on this one too.

SPEAKER_05 7:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Now these features, let's get into the features.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

Oh, yeah. Come on, man. It's a stacked album. You know what I mean? All right, one by one. One by one. We got uh Rome Streets, uh huh, Ice Cold Bishop, Fashion. Fashion.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Let's talk about Fashion for a second. One of the hardest. Boy Meets World is amazing. Come on, he's been a part of all y'all music. What is the connection with Fashion? How did that even happen? Because he's like almost like a third member.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yes. Man, uh his manager Hectic. Shout out to Hectic.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

I haven't seen Hectic in a long time.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yeah. I knew him and he just he just brought Fash over and we just connected and just started just making song after song, you know, for Boy Meets World. Basically.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

I met Fash Sean through Evidence and Alchemists. Yep. I was out in Amsterdam. This is a long time ago. Was out in Amsterdam, for Sean had never even dropped. As a matter of fact, he dropped, he had one song, and I feel like the song sampled me. Now that I think Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the name of that song? Uh uh.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

Living my life, expressing my freedom.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Yeah. Freedom. So he had that join out.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

And so Yeah, I did that. You know, that was on the album. That was that was you. Yeah, you're on the remote.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Okay, so yeah, okay, that okay, okay. I'm on the remix for that?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, this is a product of having done too many.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Listen, shout out to Fashion.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

I'm the same way. I I realized we have a remix with Buster Rhymes from the second album. I totally forgot about it.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

That's crazy you forget about a Buster remix. Listen, Fashion, listen, listen. I used to drink a lot and smoke a lot. I still drink and smoke, but I used to drink and smoke a lot more back then. You know what I'm saying? So there's a lot of things like that. Like I was listening to um, I was listening, there's a song with Craig G and Marley Maw, right? And I was listening, I was like, this shit is hard. I was like, man, I know Craig, man. Why didn't they call me to rap on this shit? And then my verse came on. Real talk. Because it was, it must have been some shit that like in that like that toxic stupor from being in the music industry and being out on the road and being in the studio and just being high and drunk all the time like that back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Oh, there's much work you do too, man.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Yeah, all the work. I probably just like laid the verse, sent it out, kept it moving, never thought about it again. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But yeah, I met Fashion with Evidence and Alchemists, and they were touring. They had, they weren't even on tour. They just had their own tour. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like they was touring Europe, going to the smoke shops, going to the record shops, and they were staying in a hostel. And that's what I remember about it. And I was like, why y'all staying in the hospital? You evidence, alchemist, why y'all? And they were like, we on the road with Fashion, and we want to show him that it has to start with being humble. And we want to show him, like, this is how we started, right? So if we gonna go on this on this trip, we're gonna go stay in the hostels. And it was and and what's probably more important is they said we could smoke. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

You know what I'm saying? Them guys, you know, Chief Keefs. Um shout out to Fashion.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah, Ev was on the album too, and I think that's what uh initially linked LinkedIn. Linked them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:12

Okay, word up. Yeah, I'm a huge Fashon fan, man. Coming from the Midwest, I don't even know how the music got out there. I think I was at a bar one day, and my homeboy James Coleman said, Man, you need to check this dude out. And then I just went down that rabbit hole and I was like, What the fuck is going on, man? How do y'all think the music organically started to spread to these different crevices of places like that for y'all?

SPEAKER_05 10:36

Man, it's really weird when the when the the first album, Below the Heavens, leaked before it dropped. A year, the master leaked a year before it dropped. And uh, we were on tour, uh, touring the states, and we were in Texas. By the time we got to Florida and toured the rest of the states, everybody knew every word to the songs we were doing. That's insane. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Yeah, we literally were like, What the hell's going on? Like cats were singing the lyrics, and we found out that threads blew up on the leak on OK Player. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 11:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

That was at the time we were like, oh shit, it's over, you know, like our albums leaked, but that was right in that sweet spot where that was actually a blessing in disguise.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

So it was crazy, man. Just the online um, it was at the time when I think Spotify was like a year old, Apple Music was like a couple years old, you know what I mean? So it was just starting with that. And um MySpace, we got a big MySpace feature, you know what I mean? It was the online presence was just real big for it, you know what I mean, at the time.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Were you on a freshman cover?

SPEAKER_05 11:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Yeah, there was that, that's like the whole blog era shit. Yeah, all the stars aligned for that project.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

And then Fashion was on the second one. Yeah, yeah. I was feeling like the man too.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

It's my ear. It's my ear. I'm not I'm yeah, I'm the guy. Um, Black Thought is on this project. Black Thought, yeah. Black Thought Come on, man. Makami. Makami, um Saba. Saba. Saba sounds great on that project.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Um and who's the and um and it's voices, voices of creation. Voices of creation, Jametta Rose's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Jametta Rose, Jemetta Rose, goddamn. Um, Jametta Rose.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

You get seeing them live is I've never seen it. Um, I've only heard, yeah. For me, and this is saying a lot, I almost want to say it was one of my top five live experiences, man. She really was able to get into like the audiences' minds emotionally. Me and Blue were sitting there, and uh I was like, man, I was like, bro, I gotta let these tears go right now. That's real. And I literally, like, I was trying to hold it in for so long, but every everything that she was saying in between the songs and then the lyrics, like, I was like, fuck it, dude. I'm just gonna cry right now. What's the name of the song? And he's like, yeah, me too, but he had the glasses, yeah. I think he was just trying to be cool.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

He was crying, he was crying too. That's why you wear the uh sunglasses. That's the purpose. So they can't see inside your soul. The eyes, it's the windows to your soul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, what's the name of that song y'all got with her on the last, like the last song on the new album, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:18

That's the title track. Title Track, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

It's a beautiful record, man. You in your bag with this one, man. It's real gospel-y with that one, man. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's really beautiful. And the one, uh, the one about the windows. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. With Toby. You mentioned my name on that.

SPEAKER_05 13:34

Oh, yeah, come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

So I'm proud to be a part of your story. Like you're telling your story, and you really uh my friend Makiba Mooncycles in there, and she said, Man, listening to this song, I feel like I get to know him. And I'm like, oh, you get to know him, and on this song, he says my name, so that means I'm part of it. That that felt really good, man. Seriously, man.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Very kind and gracious. You're definitely like a huge full circle moment, no doubt, man.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Like, below the heavens reminded me so much of Reflection Eternal when I first heard it. I think I told both of y'all at different times before, but um absolutely like the energy between the DJ and the producer.

SPEAKER_05 14:10

That's one of the first things we talked about. Yeah, yeah. We was like, we gotta be the West Coast Reflection Eternal. That's what we did.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

We had our first, we had our first when we first linked. Me and Blue's very first session we had, and we we were sitting in the car, and we're like, yo, we gotta do an album. And then we just started, you know, we're like, I wanna let's make something that could be like have the same like impact as like Reflection Eternal for the West Coast. So that was definitely like Yeah, you feel it, you feel it. I mean that was yeah, that was a record we definitely hold dearly and hold dearly back then.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

And we gotta pay it forward to all the groups, the the one man producer, rapper groups, you know, Gangstar and you know what I'm saying, like like everybody else who's CL. Uh yeah, who else? Who else? Um Fresh Prince, Jazzy.

SPEAKER_05 15:01

Jazzy Jeff, Fresh Prince, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Oh yeah, oh come on. Uh Joe Cooley. Oh, Joe Cooley. I mean, Rock Kim and Eric B. Eric B and Rock Kim. Cool and King T. Yeah, man. King T, man. Let's talk about King T a little bit. Oh my god. Because y'all from the West Coast, right? Yeah, man. And King T, he started like a whole family tree. If you go from King T to the Liquid Crew and what the Liquid Crew spawned and represented, and all the different uh iterations of what Liquid represented, but it all starts with King T.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

I'll tell you what, King T and Pooh is my original aspiration to want to be a producer MC like great. Let's go. Talk about it. Talk about it. Yeah, King T, I've been a fan since the beginning. He came out with the coolest at 16, and he was just he was just able to man, you know, I I have to say I miss hip hop that was like funny, funky, and fun, but you know, it was still street, but I think that's something that's missing in hip-hop. You know, just like fun, like carefree. But he was young at the time, so yeah. I'm sure that was part of what captured that spirit.

SPEAKER_05 16:11

After the fool 16?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah, when he first dropped.

SPEAKER_05 16:14

Okay. That was the first album, right?

unknown 16:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Well, first it was just uh a 12.

SPEAKER_05 16:18

Yeah. What's up with that uh Techno Hub? If you ever uh better bring a gun. He must have been like 15 or something when he dropped that.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, I think that was a mix of the game. I didn't know he started that young.

SPEAKER_05 16:28

That's my favorite King T.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

16 or 17, I'm pretty sure, man. Better somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_06 16:33

I remember always hearing about King T through underground stuff when I was a shorty, but never really being able to contextualize his position. But just always knowing that he was like a factor. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Come on, man. Huge. He's foundational. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah, exactly. This might be um, you know, funny to say, but you know, there is that comparison to Biggie with him too, but it had a lot of things. With the voice. With the voice.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Now, Biggie definitely was listening to King T coming up. We all was. King T was one of the rappers from the West Coast that me coming up, it wasn't a lot of them.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

There was King T, there was Ice T, there was NWA. I only know about, you know, Rodney O and them because I was deeper, deeper in the culture. But I'm talking about like, as far as most people, they was that was King T. We was listening to King T. In Brooklyn, we was listening to King T, absolutely. And you could hear it when you compare the two, and it's not a, it's not like a I don't I don't look at it as a bite. You know what I'm saying? It's just, it's just, it's a it's a vocal tone and influence, and it and it's and it's it's necessary. Batons being passed, man.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

You know, yeah. Just like just like this connection right here, you know. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

So another group I was thinking about was self-scientific.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

And I know y'all being where from where y'all from.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah, that's one of the most slept-on producer MC groups. Yeah, bro. Like they beats was crazy. Yeah, calliver. That is definitely part of the DNA, no doubt. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Yeah, man. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I mean, because he's kind of like the OG of like jazz guitar samples. Yeah. You know, that was, you know, and I I love jazz guitar samples. That makes sense. That's man, come on, I can't lie that that was that uh and Chase Infinite for me as an MC. Khalil wasn't an influencer.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Yeah, yeah, Khalil definitely. And for me as an MC, I think I feel like me and Chase came out at the same time. Right? So I feel like Reflection Eternal and Self-Scientific was bubbling at the same time. Yeah. So I don't look at Chase as like someone who's like older than me. I don't look at him as someone that's younger than me. I look at Chase as my peer, MC-wise. And but it still feels like I'm super inspired and even influenced by what he was doing. Maybe I don't know the timeline. Maybe, maybe we came out first, maybe they came out first. I don't know. But I know from when I first heard Chase Infinite rhyme, he's inspired me. And then just as a human being, what he's been able to do on the business side, he brings consciousness to the to the business of hip hop. And it's very hard to do. Come on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:59

Yeah, my full name is actually Teflon Poetics. And Tef Poe is the short version of that, but it comes from me wanting to be like Chase Infinite, like having that long name, like, yeah, yeah, come on.

unknown 19:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:11

Come on, serious.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Now you said you love jazz guitar samples. Last night, Hot Tech came out last night. Oh man. I wish I was there, man. Hot Tech walked out when we did the blast. I didn't know he was gonna be there, so it was like a real dope ass surprise. That's amazing. Um, but then we went into um Dancing in the Rain. That's crazy. You know, shout out to Matt Pettos, he got on the guitar. He was killing us. Yeah, man. Um tell us about creating that record because that's a very important record in y'all catalog.

SPEAKER_05 19:41

Yeah, man, that's our biggest record, dancing in the rain.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Oh man. I was I was uh man. I was probably like 22 years old, uh living in a garage I had turned into a room, you know, uh in North Hollywood. I used to live in North Hollywood. And I made that beat. I made that beat. I think I even made that beat before I met Blue.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

And it was just kind of in the vault. And uh we were working on Below the Heavens, and I think that was kind of like a It was an interlude at first.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

I did one verse, one hook. It was it was the oldest beat on the album and the oldest lyrics. Because I actually had the first verse written and uh came up with the hook, and it was an interlude, and we were just vibing to it so much. I was like, yo, I gotta drop a second verse on this, you know what I mean? Then we added the second verse. You can hear I was sick. My voice on the second verse is like it's like harsh.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

But yeah, man. You see, I remember you said I got this one that's kind of like an Eminon track.

SPEAKER_05 20:48

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Come on. That uh record is uh it's no, it's it's not a coincidence that that's your biggest record. Because if the intentionality be uh behind creating a group was we're gonna do this group, that's the first iteration of it, like you said, like the old rhyme, old beat. It's like, okay, I can see why that resonates with the fans more than any other record.

SPEAKER_05 21:14

Yeah, man. I I was surprised, you know what I mean? Because like I said, it was an interlude that we were just feeling. You know, I was surprised at the the impact of the whole album. You know what I mean? You know, we're we were putting in mad work, you know, trying to make our best record that we can make. But um the love from it is man, that's uh it's out of my hands at that point, man. It's it just took over.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

It's beautiful. Um, Eminon, that's uh you and Allo Black, right? Is that no name backwards? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and um uh the mixtapes that you used to sell as a teenager. Talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah, man. Uh I used to just uh make four track mix four track mixtapes all the time, inspired by like the Rhodian mixtapes, Tony A. And Dr. Dre mixtapes. I always wanted to like do my like cuts and make mega mixes and whatnot. And I would make these mixtapes with other artists. And then uh yeah, me and Allo would make our demos on, you know, and we put it on the other side of the tape, and uh just went out to uh beat nonstop on Melrose when I was like 17 years old, like, yo, can I sell these tapes here? And uh they ended up loving the tapes, and the cats would at the shop would push it on to people, like, yo, you gotta fuck with this. And so this is like pre-internet, so going viral was you know, like the underground gatekeepers being like, yo, I'll give let me give you a dub of this, you know, like a like tapes, and it would literally spread through people making dubs and of dubs of dubs. And and the when when you would get an album that would be like really bad quality and super hissy, and you would hear it, it would add to like the mystery of it. Yeah. And you don't know who the fuck this is, but it's just this tape you have of this terrible recording, but it's amazing sounding. And anyway, I we I just kept on making tapes like that, and you know, backpack full of tapes, went to the beat non-stop and just handing trading tapes with cats, you know, with abstract root and shout out to Ab Rude, Ab Rude, you know going up to Frisco standing, you know, in front of Amoeba, like by the Hobo Junction cats, you know, who was doing the same thing. And man, there was just something about doing that and feeling proud about your music and feeling proud that you were grinding on that like low of a level in a way. I don't I want to say low, but on there was something about you know hobo junction called it dirt hustling, you know. Like, so it's just something that felt so I know what you mean. It just felt had this feeling like I'm gonna fucking do this and this shit is the dopest shit. Buy this shit. 95.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

But I was able to sell them too. It was kind of I the reason I said 95, because summer of 95, I lost my job and I dropped out of college. And I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna go to the good life.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

Because I had met Mike and Nine and we had become friendly, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna go to the Good Life Cafe and test out my MC skills because whatever they got going on on the West Coast is is is cracking right now in terms of the lyricist. Okay. And so I took a me and my man Juju took a Greyhound bus for three days. I had it cost $137. That's how much I take it with. That's a lot of things. I had some money saved up, spent $137. We took the Greyhound bus and I got to Los Angeles right there at the Hollywood with the bus stop. Uh-huh. And um he knew this girl that was staying, she lived in the same neighborhood as OJ, like right next to his house. So we was like staying, right? That was the year that they had the police tape around the house because of shit had just happened. So I came right to the right to that. This is my first experience in California. You know what I'm saying? And um, and then I met a girl who was like, yeah. Yeah, I met a girl that was like, she was like, I'm from the Bay Area. You, this ain't cracking now. You need to come to the Bay Area, that's where it's really cracking. I was like, all right. And I got in her fucking car. And we drove up the highway to the Bay Area. And um, I had met, I'm skipping our part, at the good life, I got into a rhyme cipher with Tom and Corey from Living Legends. Oh, right. Mystic Journeyman. Right? Mystic Journeymen. Mystic Journey and Luck, right? Come on. And um, they was like, if you ever come to the Bay Area, we gonna take care of you. You can stay with us. Oh, worry. So I got in this girl's car, we go up to the bay, and as soon as I get there, I call them.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

And they like, yeah, we got an apartment. I stayed in their apartment. All they had was a couch and top ramen. They had mad top ramen. I never I didn't even know what that was. I knew what noodles was. We didn't call it top ramen. But um, I was like, they was like, yeah, that's all we eat. And they was like, okay, we're gonna go down to Amoeba's and we gonna sell CDs. And me being from New York, the home of hip hop, that sounded crazy to me. Because I in New York, the hustle was you make a demo and you try to go to the record label. And we wasn't, that's why Jay-Z cracked the way he did, because Rockefeller, they was like, fuck all that. That's why Wu-Tang cracked the way they did, because they did it independently. Everybody else was trying to get a deal. So at 95, I was like, You gonna do what? They was like, we press up CDs, we gonna go in front of Amoeba. We gonna down Amoeba. And I knew, I'd heard that Dell worked at one of them stores at that time. Amoeba, he worked on the streets. Amoeba, he worked at Amoeba, right? So I was like, okay, we go down to Amoeba and the Who Riders is there.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

And the Who Riders is outside selling their CDs.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Yep. Word.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

And I bought a CD from them, and then we start rhyming. And the Who Riders, like, we down with Hobo Junction. I'm like, okay, y'all the niggas that battle hieroglyphics. You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, I see what's going on. And they invited me to Safir Crib. So I go to Safeer Crib. Man, shout out to Safir, rest the power to Safir. I go to Safe Crib, Harold from Menace to Society, and this is my first time in California. I'm like, I'm with Harold? Nigga, like, yeah, how is this happening? Right? I go to Safe Crib, and Safir and the they were in the heat of that Hiro Hobo thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

So Safir was just, he was on one. Like he was like, he was just talking about the battle and what they was gonna do next. And he was very just excited about going against Hyro. And I was just in his house. Come on. Man, like, and that's how I met Safir, man. That was 95. So when you said Hobo Junction, you just unlocked the memory for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

They're all the kids, they're all the kings of like slanging tapes in front of spots, like, but they they really made it cool, you know, like with how they talked about it. And yeah, I they're definitely part of the inspiration of me wanting to do that and feeling feeling good about, you know, being at that stage in my career just selling tapes.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_06 28:09

Man, for years y'all have been revered and respected as a foundational piece of West Coast hip hop in the underground, especially. Um how how have you been able to sustain the respect for the culture alongside with like the expanding of your reputations? Because a lot of times people get more experimental down the road. They don't stick to what really made them the thing that we got into to begin with. And I think what's interesting about both of y'all is you seem to be a bit reluctant to jump off of what made you who you actually are.

SPEAKER_05 28:40

Uh yeah, man. Um, I got a ton of albums, you know. Yeah, you do. So I stay busy.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Yeah, you're the most prolific MC I think out right now. I don't think anybody's uh uh recording and putting out at a clip like you are.

SPEAKER_05 28:53

Shout out to Currency, Currency Go Hard.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Oh, current currency go hard.

SPEAKER_05 28:56

You know what I mean? But yeah, there's some heads out there. Um But yeah, man, um just just putting out albums, you know what I mean, putting out records, uh staying, staying consistent, you know what I mean? Staying um, what's the word? Uh you know, relevant to say relevant, you know what I mean? Um staying in the light, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 29:20

And and me saying no to the uh putting out the trap album we have in the vault.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

We need to hear that. The world needs that. The world needs that.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

You heard it here first, folks. You heard it here first. So that that's how we maintain our sound. We're saying no.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

But I, you know, I do got I I you know, just off electro alone, I mean, of course, I gotta make some some beats like that, you know. I have fun with those as well.

SPEAKER_05 29:45

Yeah, yeah, we do experiment. That's what I was getting into with a lot of albums, having a lot of albums. We do step out, you know, um, but when we when we link up together, we tend to keep it traditional to the sound, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Um I mean, to be honest, I mean it's like you kind of think about like Gangstar and like what would you want from them next?

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Well, you know, Gangstar is the perfect example because with all the albums they did, it was always the Gangstar sound, and that's always what you came for. You wouldn't want anything else. I mean, Premier does the premiere sound with other artists, but to be honest with you, you know, rest in peace to guru, like you always kind of want to hear guru come, like even with other artists. As it could be uh Group Home, J-Ro, it could be Big E. It don't matter. You kind of if you hear a premiere beat, you'd be like, man, I want to I wanna hear that guru shit.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Guru did experiment with Jasmine Taz, and he did a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

He he tried a lot of different things. I was on Guru's last album, I was on the last Gangstar album. Come on. Um, you know, like those are my guys, man. Come on. But yeah, we uh we are there's a there's a a lineage here. They come before me. I come before y'all. Y'all, there's somebody that y'all inspiring right now in terms of the like the this type of group dynamic. It's a beautiful thing to see.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Appreciate that, man. Yeah, it's you know, we're like a living organism, really, like sonically, you know?

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Come on. Um Another fractal of You got this song about how you almost signed with Death Row.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Uh-huh. Right? The Shirk Knight song, right? Yeah, yeah. Wow. And um, shout out to King Crooked and Corrupt, who y'all got also on that record. Yeah. Dropping super bars. Ominous World, the last thing. Ominous World, yeah, Ominous World. Beautiful, beautiful record. Thank you. Um that song, you talk about going up to the Death Row office. Uh-huh. And you had a meeting with Suge, and they made you pass out waters. I want to hear more about that part. I want you to unpack the passing out water part because I'm fascinated by that part.

SPEAKER_05 31:44

We got there at like 12 o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

Start from the top of the story. Okay. Like, how'd you even get to having a meeting at Def Row? Did they try to kidnap you like Torrey?

SPEAKER_05 31:54

No, no, no. My cousin was interning at Def Row. And uh he came by. I was in the IE at the time. I just did 20 songs in two days. And um he came by and I'm playing him the slaps. He was like, dude, you gotta meet Suge. And Suge just dropped, they just, they were just on a cover of Double XL with left eye, crooked, and corrupt. And they were like, we're looking for lyricists. And I was like, oh, word? Kavol. So I was like amped about it already. I was like, for real. I already felt like Suge needed to hear me when he said that. You know what I mean? And um, so uh he was like, I'm gonna get a meeting. About a week, two weeks later, we got the meeting. So we we drive down there at 12 o'clock, noon, you know, we in the office, it's empty pretty much, you know what I mean? And uh the the people working at desk was like, yo, you guys should pass out some waters, some def row waters at the Laker parade. Lakers just wanna shit. I was and you know, my cousin was the intern, so you know what I mean. We had to pass out the waters, you know. They had everybody's face on the waters, some death row waters, you know what I mean? Which is brilliant. Like, hell yeah, we'll do it. Yeah, I was I was I mean, I was ready to go. I was ready to go. He was ready, yeah. He was ready to go. You know, yeah, and uh Suge didn't show up until about midnight. We're in the office all day, chilling, listening to uh the engineer work on like post-humanist Tupac records, you know what I mean? That's crazy, bro. Danny Boy was in there singing court, singing hooks. Insane. You know what I'm saying? And uh Suge walks in and was like, finally, because we was about to bounce, right? You know what I mean? Right. Um Suge walks in, he's like checking the mixes out and everything, and then my cousin was like, yo, you gotta pee my cousin, you know what I mean? He was like, all right, give me a sec. Then he came back, got me out the studio. He was like, follow me. And I was like, all right, bet. I followed him to the cafeteria, and it's like, it's like 12 blood sitting down watching, uh, watching a game or something, watching TV. It's like two TVs. Should just walk in, turn off the TVs, don't say nothing. Walk back to me and was like, all right, go, bust. That's it right. Didn't say nothing. And I was ready. I busted 50 bars, I busted 64 bars, and then I busted 100 bars, which is five minutes of rap. You know, 100 bars is five minutes. You know what I mean? All acapella, you know what I mean? Just tore that shit down, and he was like, all right, brought me into his office and talked about signing me. You know what I mean? Yep, but uh RBX talked me out of it. Of all people, OG RBX was like, man, shit gonna take all your money, dude.

SPEAKER_03 34:42

Shout out to RBX. Legend, boy. Um, RBX is on that ominous world project, right? Yes, yep. Um that wasn't a mistake, too.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Like, we we wanted to have them all on there just to kind of pay for the full circle for that story, even yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

The way you told that story just now is very cinematic. Um that album sounds very cinematic. It's like watching a movie with all the little like like accents and all the little things with that album. Is that intentional?

SPEAKER_00 35:15

I guess so. Yeah, like yeah, with how uh RBX was kind of narrating the song and narrating what uh Blue's raps were about, even in between, and then the poet at the end kind of summing up the story, but also uh bringing in uh sort of like a way out of the darkness that was created through the song, The Ominous World that has RBX on it. And then, yeah, you know, I I felt like it may have added to the how it was maybe cinematic by you know drop foreshadowing uh corrupt and uh and crooked, yeah, and then l later having um them mentioned in the song um uh you know about it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then later kind of bringing back in RBX to kind of tie it all in together, along with, you know, telling the story about Blue, you know. Another story. I think there's so many ways.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

Yeah, because the Def Row shit was cinematic like that. That's part of the appeal of it. That's why I think the we reason why Def Row and the West Coast music in general, um, along with like the sample choices and using live instrumentation, but they it appealed to people because of the cinematic nature, particularly of what Dr. Dre was doing.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah, yeah. And beyond that, I just heard the story. I'm like, man, you gotta you gotta do a whole song just about that.

SPEAKER_05 36:35

Yeah, he's telling me, man. He's like, That's our West Coast album. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's right. That's our album leaning into the West Coast sound. That's right. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

I love that Los Angeles too.

SPEAKER_05 36:46

Oh, the laugh, man. Yeah, yeah. Come on, we got busy on that.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Yeah, that's a great record. That one's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 36:53

Man, it has to feel good to for you guys to be uh uh representatives of your hometown, your your homeland, home sound, I should say. And I like that home sound. Underground Titans, for real, you know what I mean? Like uh I we were talking before we started filming. We did shows back in the day of like South by Southwest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

I remember you tearing it down for sure.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

Come on. You guys have always been a factor. And uh so for me getting on stage, it was like, yo, I get a chance to like perform in front of these dudes. Like it was a part of spreading the legend and you know, exchanging gifts of the culture, man. But how does it feel at this stage in the game for you to know like people come to y'all for like straight quality assurance? Like y'all music is known as good music. Yeah, you know, it's it's never a bad thing that I'm seeing in the press about y'all's music, you know, like your respect, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

We try to keep it, we like I say, traditional. We try to, we try to uh make sure we give the fans what they want, you know. I mean, what they come to us for every time we create, you know.

SPEAKER_06 37:55

That's not easy to do, man.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

We really sit down and talk about like what we want to do with songs and then how it relates in as a full album and just you know it's intentional. Yeah, you know, try to figure out the flow of it and and like push through the disagreements to the agreements, and then it's just flow, you know?

SPEAKER_06 38:15

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

And a lot of it has to do with being conscious of wanting to maintain the balance of you know the the evils and you know what's of God too, in a way. You know, I mean I think that especially in hip-hop, I think that balance is needed. And I think um I I feel that we do go in intentionally to be a part of that balance. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Yeah, yeah. You young bird parker. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_05 38:41

With the marker, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

You doing all this fly shit with the jazz samples, you're really in your jazz bag a lot. Um, I don't know how many different times can you sample with the word blue? Like, oh man.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

We you know we have an album, every song is about blue samples. Yeah. Okay, I wasn't, I'm not. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

I was like, you know what? I have heard that album, but I didn't peep.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

How is he gonna get away with this? And somehow he did. I'm like, bro, yeah, I'm like about to fucking have a blue overdose right now. But that shit, yo, you give him a topic, he will like get in a magnifying glass and like find every little like thing that can explain.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

It's like you see colors though, like the senestees, is that how you say that shit? Yeah, the Pharrell was talking about in the Pharrell movie, he was talking about it. Um you having a name blue, being in a city where colors is a thing, has it ever been an issue?

SPEAKER_06 39:32

I wondered, I wondered that.

SPEAKER_05 39:34

Uh I try not to make it an issue. Okay. You know what I mean? Okay. Um, and my reputation, you know, holds me down. That's right. You know what I mean? As an MC, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 39:44

His dad was a blood, so it balances out.

SPEAKER_05 39:49

You know what I mean? But uh, nah, not too much, you know. Um in the county, it could get crazy. You know what I mean? So don't go to jail. You know what I mean? But um, nah, I keep it cool.

SPEAKER_06 40:01

Yeah. What are some secrets to the MCs that are staying out of the midst of that type of stuff? What are some secrets to the trade with that lifestyle?

SPEAKER_05 40:08

Uh uh That's a good question. Man, uh if you step in, it is it is what it is, you know what I mean? If you banging, you banging, you know. So um it's a whole different lifestyle. You know what I'm saying? When they when cats that meet me, they know I'm not about that. You know what I'm saying? I'm about peace, love, you know what I mean, unity, you know what I'm saying? Um but yeah, man, uh it could get crazy, you know what I mean? I I got rolled up on, but not even people knowing me. That's just being in LA. Just being in LA, yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Yeah, you know. Y'all got a great relationship with Miguel. Shout out to Miguel, we got a couple records. How did that establish?

SPEAKER_05 40:50

Oh man, I met Miguel in high school, computer class, and I was forming a crew in high school. Okay. We're like 20 plus deep, trying to be the biggest crew, and I was just recruiting everybody I could recruit. And I asked Miguel, yo, you rap? He was like, nah. I was like, you beatbox, you any of the four elements, you know what I'm saying? He was like, nah, I sing at church, you know. And I was like, yo, you should sing in our crew, right? You know? And he was like, all right. And uh from there, we just uh we clicked up, man. I my first manager ended up becoming his first manager. And um, yeah, we just we just you know stayed in contact all these all these years, you know what I mean. I kind of kind of pushed him in that direction, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I've heard that before. That's why I want to know the origins of that story. It's a little weird, you know what I mean? He's the dude is is super huge right now, you know what I'm saying? I just saw the footage of him like selling out the uh forum, man. Yeah, that's incredible, bro. Sold out, yeah. Everybody's screaming your lyrics. He's an amazing musician, too. Oh, yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

He's really underrated too. As well as he does, he's still very underrated. Oh yeah, huh? Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

One of my favorite.

SPEAKER_05 42:05

Come on, that's dope.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

He stays progressive with it too, man. He's changing his sound.

SPEAKER_05 42:09

Yep. Yeah, shout out to Miguel, man.

SPEAKER_06 42:13

So what's next, fellas?

SPEAKER_05 42:14

Like this album.

SPEAKER_06 42:16

If we could get a peep into the mind of blue, man, like oh, there's people all over the world that want to know what's next, man. Like, come on. What's on what's in your what's what what are you thinking? What's what where are you where where we where are we going next, man?

SPEAKER_05 42:27

Right now, we're gearing up for this album drop. We got a big tour. We're going uh West Coast to the South and to uh Europe and uh eventually the East Coast, you know what I mean? And um we're gonna be touring for about three months, so that's gonna be big for us, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 42:43

And before we go, we we're already putting on the finishing touches for the next one.

unknown 42:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

For the next album. Yeah. Every time y'all drop an album, and you know, I watched a couple interviews with y'all before I did this. Every time y'all drop an album, y'all do these interviews, and then y'all say it's another album coming.

SPEAKER_06 43:00

That's why I asked that question too. Yeah, y'all always do that. I was trying to get some insight on the next album before the next album was even released.

SPEAKER_05 43:08

Oh man, I'm sitting on like I'm sitting on like 10 unreleased albums I'm working on to apply to the people.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

You know, I won't see him for a week. He'll come over. I'll be like, Did you make another album? Exile.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Can we get another um Xile Radio? AMFM.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

It's already done.

SPEAKER_03 43:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

It's already done, man. Yeah, that's funny you asked that. Um that's another album I'm gonna try to uh finish up before um before the tour, yeah. Album I made uh sampling everything off of LA Radio Waves. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Dr. Snare. It reminds me of my childhood hearing music like that. Hearing because we're dealing I'm from the radio era, so hearing the radio incorporated in the music is red alert tapes off the red screen.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

Um I sometimes when I when I get in my bag, I was sometimes you can do this. If you're my age, I'm letting y'all know you can go on YouTube and you can listen to old. Red Alert, old Marley Moss shows from Kiss FM and BLS in the 90s and in the 80s. You can listen to Red Mixing and and what I was fascinating about it is you get to understand which music has longevity and which people was doing things that was trendy. Because I I listened to like a two-hour mix of red alert in like 87. And it's like I might know a third of the records. Right.

SPEAKER_05 44:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

The rest I don't remember.

SPEAKER_05 44:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

You know what I'm saying? Even though they was hot in the city, it's like some records have staying power. And it's like, okay, this record had longevity. Like it's interesting to see which records worked.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

I I come from the same school of those old radio tapes, man. And getting those red alert tapes, oh man, I I would burn those to the ground.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

You gotta love hip hop for you to be doing that because for me, I have the privilege of being in New York City. I was a child, like listening to it on the radio live as it was happening. You were out here having to find it. You know what I'm saying? So it's like you had to really love it.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

We had uh KJ and uh the militant master mix, but you can't beat fucking red alert on.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

Cool DJ, red alert. Yeah. It was just electric.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Listening to that, you felt like you were like, you were there, man. Just the music. Man.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Um, Evidence did an album to one of those AMFMs, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:22

Yeah, man. That's something I I I kicked myself for because I was like, Evidence did a full album to the Exile Radio shit, but I I was already doing like a compilation album, uh-huh, and I didn't know what to do at the time, and and uh it just kind of hit a level where he's like, fuck it, man. I'm not gonna put it out. I've been trying to get those songs back. We had a couple of them on that project I was doing, but I think I fucked up.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

I think everything that happens as it's supposed to happen. The music, um, can we turn the air down? Make it a little warmer here. Um the music that you make, even the like the beats you make and the choices you make in terms of how you structure the albums, whatever project, whether it's for Sean or your own or with Blue, um it feels spiritual.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yeah, so the Exile Radio album, no lie. I would pray before I did anything. I'm a spiritual person, you know. I'm not like a religious person. I would literally pray to be able to create something that could communicate like the spirit of God to people, the spirit of love. And if you listen to the album from beginning to end, it tells a tale of evil versus love. It and it really does, man. I was able to manipulate everything from the radio to say a message that I agree with. And I'm pretty big on that with the music that I create.

SPEAKER_03 46:58

Yeah, that's part of it. That's part of the connection.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

Yeah. Like even with this record y'all got from uh Give Me The Flowers All You Can. This is record Um A Man. Ooh, that's a brilliant record. Man, that's a brilliant record, and it's kind of like a prophetic record because you talk about funding wars in Iran on that record. Come on. And look what's happening now.

SPEAKER_05 47:19

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

Yeah. Yeah. That song is incredible, bro. Like, I keep on telling him we gotta do that live on a cappella. He's like, nah, man.

SPEAKER_05 47:28

About that recently. Come on, I'll pull that one out.

SPEAKER_06 47:33

As an MC and as a producer that make alternative hip-hop, thought-provoking hip-hop, uh, what are some of the things that y'all are worried about for future generations of artists who may be trying to follow in in suit of what you're doing? Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 47:50

Um, anybody trying to follow us, I don't I think they're in good hands, you know what I mean? You know? Um, they just want to get connected to the real hip-hop, you know what I mean? Um, tap into that bloodline.

SPEAKER_06 48:02

Well, the reason I ask you that is because you don't have regular lyrics, he doesn't have regular production, right? It's always another level to what you're what you're presenting. And I think a lot of uh artists nowadays, uh, they may want to follow that that type of pathway of creativity, but uh if you're not brave enough to do it, there's a lot of roadblocks nowadays. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um so it was, you know, easier said than done 10 years ago if somebody said, man, I love these cats cats. I want to try to see if I can do my thing like that. Nowadays, there's a little bit more resistance to saying something like funding wars in Iraq and Iran in your lyrics, you know.

SPEAKER_05 48:39

I mean, I grew up on Talib Kwali, man. Come on, man. You know what I'm saying? Now I'm listening to Paris, you know what I'm saying? Chuck D. Paris.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

That's an underrated super MC. Devil made me do it. Devil made me do it.

SPEAKER_06 48:56

Super MC, man.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

You say on this Africa record that you are a black star student. I'm like, that's my name. I'm Talib. I'm a I'm a I'm Talib. I'm from Black Star. I'm a Black Star student. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like that Africa record, bro, with Knotts. First of all, Knot's first of all, Knotts. Beast. Like, is, you know, like Beast. Man, Knots is every producer's favorite producer. Would you say that?

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

Um uh tell me, I have two questions, Blue, about this. Tell me how you linked up with Knotts and tell me about your journey into Pan-Africanism, because that's really what you're dealing with on this project.

SPEAKER_05 49:36

Um, I linked up with Knotts back in about 2012, no, 2013. I had a show in VA, and him and Chad Hugo came out to the show, man. And uh we tore it down. I went to Knott's studio afterwards, and he gave me one of the beats on our first album, God's in the Spirit, Titans in the Flesh.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:57

And uh a crazy beat. I was like, bro, Nash should have this beat. What the hell? Crazy, you know what I mean? He was like, go ahead, man. And uh eventually we circled back around, did our first album, and um then I I was through a lot of studying, man. Um I wanted to do an Africa album, you know. And uh I was talking to Knots about it, and he was down. So I got a bunch of beats and uh put down everything I have been studying, man. You know? And um, you know, it was it for me in my catalog is it's very important, you know what I mean. If you listen to my music to get to know who I am, you know what I'm saying? The Africa album is you know what I mean, quintessential, man.

SPEAKER_03 50:44

I agree. I want to thank you for making that because it's a necessary choice, it's um a brave choice, and we need more of that. We need more MCs and artists to really uh, you know, make those type of connections and not be scared, man. Yeah. Now's not the time to be a coward about none of this shit. Like, like say that shit with your chest, and that's what you're doing on that record.

SPEAKER_05 51:04

Come on. We did I did a tape called Jesus back in the days, and I felt like a whole wave happened after that. Like the game did Jesus pieces shortly afterwards. Uh I think Lily Allen did Sheesus.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 51:19

Um, Lupe did Jesus Friend of the People mixtape. Um bunch of artists were doing Jesus albums. Jeremiah J, just it just started rolling out, you know? And I wanted to get that same feeling. I wanted that that same uh impact to happen with Africa, you know, to where people was like, yo, I want to make my Africa album. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

We have a nine-minute song called Roots of Blue. Yeah, that's an amazing piece on Africa from the Miles album as well.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Yeah, that Miles album is great too. That's that's amazing, man. It goes back to that jazz. You know it like that. Yeah, man. That's a that's a that's a you know, that's a jazz.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

Y'all saying a lot of jazzy shit on that album. I like it. Um we did uh we did at the show, we did uh we did uh Burgundy Whip last night at the show. Uh uh that's a great record of Jametta Rose once more. Um how did you link up with Mad to do and Mad Lib to do that neighbor record?

SPEAKER_05 52:19

Uh the Jesus album, actually.

SPEAKER_03 52:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 52:21

I had the Jesus joint with Mad Lib, and um Med hit me up shortly after it dropped and was like, yo, what's up with a Mad Blue and Mad Lib album? And I was like, yo, let's go. Took me on my first tour in 05 with uh Exile and Allo.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

My first European tour too with with Med Allo. Yeah, that was my first time. Oh word, yeah, that's crazy. Definitely shout out to Allo Black.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

Um we we talked about the group with him earlier, but we didn't really give him his flowers, I think like we should, because he's a very important component to the music and to y'all's story.

SPEAKER_00 52:56

Yes, yeah, yeah, man. I I've been making music with him since he was 16, and um we've just been inspiring each other, man. We have like this, we have this brotherhood that even though we live our separate lives, that always stays connected. Like he's always he's always there for me. It's it's uh he's an amazing cat, man. I can I can say that. But I remember I think it was what 96, 97, getting a call, like, yo, y'all on the wake up show. And and Allo's like, yo, I heard we're on the wake up show. We're like, we're trying to figure it out. Right. That's beautiful. And it was fucking manifesto, bro. It was reflection eternal, it was the manifesto joints. Wow, early Eminem tapes is similarities. It's insane, like how much you guys sound like each other right there. Like wow, and that song.

SPEAKER_03 53:46

Yeah, I guess so. That's when we had when Allo's really on his rapping, yeah. I guess so.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

You gotta hear his early '95 shit then. Like I said, 95, man.

SPEAKER_03 53:54

95. We was out there doing it. We was outside. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 53:59

But yeah, he was really, you know, gung-ho about making sure we linked up. That's how we and Blue Met.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

Yeah, so definitely, man.

SPEAKER_03 54:10

Well, I want to thank y'all for coming out and spending y'all time with us. Y'all time is very valuable and y'all are so important to the culture. I have one more question. I don't know if you have another question, Tef, but I got ask questions all day, but go ahead. Yeah, I got another question. Um, both of y'all, the there's pockets of the LA underground that are not always so connected. I I lived out here for a long time. I've worked with a lot of Los Angeles artists. Shout out to Strong Arm Steady and Plenty of Asia, and these these guys have become my family. Chase, Crondon, Phil, Mitchie, you know, all these guys. Um but there's there's there's many, if you know the LA Underground, you know that there's this crew, there's this crew, there's this crew, there's this guy, these guys over here in this little city, these guys in this city. Somehow, y'all got music with all of them.

SPEAKER_05 54:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

How do you, how do y'all stay so connected with the different pockets of all the different little LA cliques and clans and crews?

SPEAKER_05 55:06

Man, for the LA underground, I feel like it's my community, man. It's my, you know, it's my my playing field, you know what I mean? So I'm trying to get down with everybody beasting, you know what I mean? Um as far as just collabing, that's just like I just love building with heads, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 55:23

It's like I think it has to do with below the heavens and below the heavens spanning like to gangster cats to to to the underground, and like, and that that pretty much sums it up right there. Like everybody we were like blown away when there'd be like you know, like gangster cats just really fucking with our shit. Like, like, wow, man, like we really like were able to do something for you know that transcended the underground and like you know the street culture and all that.

SPEAKER_05 55:59

So yeah, man, definitely. But yeah, it's in the nate, it's like like listening to Miles and Co Train. I listen to them and I feel like when they all the records they did together, I listen to it like it's a battle.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:12

You know what I mean? Like I love listening to both of both of their solos, like just comparing them, you know what I mean? Listening to jazz record like jazz records like that, you know what I mean? The piano solo versus the drum solo versus you know what I mean? Yeah. And uh collabing, man. I grew up on battling. So for me, it was it's just like in my nature to collab and want to compete and get down, you know what I'm saying? Dueling horns. You know what I mean? Yeah, sharp, still, sharpen, still, man.

SPEAKER_03 56:40

You know? Yeah, the through line is the jazz, and that's the foundation of what I do as well. So, you know, I love and appreciate it, and I think that's why I recognize myself and hear myself and what y'all do as well.

SPEAKER_05 56:52

That's what we'll say.

SPEAKER_03 56:53

Absolutely. Um man, thank y'all for coming out. Blue and exile, man. Yes, indeed, yes indeed. Thank y'all. Let me ask you this. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 57:02

Appreciate y'all.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

How y'all feeling out there? Y'all make some noise for Tyler Kuali, y'all. Hip hop in the building, it's already on, probably. It's already on. Check that shit, it's all.

SPEAKER_05 57:14

Check, check, there it is. What up, LA? How y'all feelin'? Make some noise for T'Live Quali, y'all. You already know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

Make some noise a blue. Make some noise a metaphor.

SPEAKER_04 57:30

Yeah. We know, we know. How many of y'all know about that big baby shit? Probably a few of y'all.

SPEAKER_05 57:39

We know, we know. Bub fifth in the huggable dip on the flip. Puffin a stick, whippin' something legit on the chick. Kibble depends for the way she got missed. But we was tryna get what we can get. Ain't got rich and got. Think out nobody got hit, or got pinched or got. Body get hit without a shoty the grip. I got just a few tryna get on the flip. With the loop, spinning the stick, shit. We been through. Bands with the tin, no roof on the coops. Friends with the two doors, roof on the loop. Had them on the clue, callin' two more through. When it's true, it was the burger they went. We know, we know.

SPEAKER_04 58:14

Help us out, yo. We know, we know. I got a feeling I'm here, come on. We know. We hip up in the building. We know, we know. We know, we know. We know, hip hop, look, check, with a rolling, like waves in the ocean, coast and weight, free space, biddy base, open, moist and light, hostess case, life. Being what you make, let's make it, yeah. Wait for nothing to live, yeah. Something to spin it, miss up in this bitch. Missable A D, space from the centre, hop in the whip with a fit flip, go dippin' through the wall, wave. Cool, flu, pants, hands through the juice, through the full blue, goose alone, let the cell fall. Fuck the peace with the older but they in the hole. Yo, mix the loose with the filler, yellow feeling for the colour, yellow. I gotta fill it over here, listen. I gotta fill the colour. I gotta feel it, make some noise over here, yellow. What's up with y'all over there? Make some noise. I y'all feelin' it? Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Now hold on, I gotta say something. Give it up for blue, give it up for men.

SPEAKER_05 59:34

Uh uh.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

These gentlemen are foundational to underground Los Angeles hip hop. In case you don't know, you're gonna learn tonight. These men are foundational to underground Los Angeles hip hop.