Blu & Exile - Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them (Red 2XLP + Download Card)
Embossed Gatefold Jacket / 2xLP Red Vinyl + Download Card
On September 4, Southern California’s Blu & Exile return to their collaborative origins with the release of Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, the long-anticipated followup to the duo’s landmark debut, Below the Heavens.
Featuring Fashawn, Homeboy Sandman, Johaz of Dag Savage, Black Spade of
Hawthorne Headhunters, and ADAD, the new album on Fat Beats / Dirty
Science is both an evolution from and complement to their first: a
cohesive, kicked back collection of hip-hop buoyed by Blu’s gymnastic
wordplay and Exile’s soulful, sample-driven beats. While Blu’s penchant
for introspection and analysis remains intact, his perspective ebbs from
the sun-soaked nostalgia of Below the Heavens to a more playful realm
where raps about lost love and forgotten dreams find equal footing with
those about Gondry films and delivery cheesecake. Together Blu &
Exile have taken the raw materials of rap and crafted charmingly
idiosyncratic, album-minded mu- sic that transcends coasts and
continents alike.
As with Dilla & Common, Hi-Tek & Talib Kweli, and Pete Rock
& CL Smooth, there’s a kindred understanding between Blu and Exile
that invites instant ease and empathy. Although Exile has produced
tracks for Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean, Akon, Aloe Blacc, Jurassic
5, Kardinal Offishall, and Mobb Deep, it is with Blu that his
production feels most at home. Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still
Smell Them, though undoubtedly a logical progression in both sound and
scope, defies all the hype, precedents, and expectations to reaffirm the
duo’s position at the forefront of LA’s burgeoning beat scene.
