REVIEW | BLUE & EXILE LIVE AT THE JAZZ CAFE...THE HIGHLIGHTS

Blu and Exile alongside special guest MED hit the stage for a very rare UK show at the world famous Jazz Cafè.
Having only seeing them once since the debut of their modern west coast classic album ‘Below The Heavens’ which was released to critical acclaim back in 2007.

‘Below The Heavens’ followed up a solid trio of albums concluding with the duos fantastic double album ‘Miles’ which dropped in 2020.

Over the last 15+ years Blu was very much considered an élite level Emcee who isn’t afraid to push creative boundaries in Hip Hop and has been very prolific with a plethora of classic verses.

Unfortunately Blu does tend to be a bit low energy and disinterested at times onstage leading him to be outshined by his guest MED’s stage presence and even his DJ. Whenever Exile jumped on the mic for a quick cameo verse or got behind the decks for some impressive beat juggling and sample rippling on the drum machine.

With that being said this Jazz Café audience was fully engaged from start to finish and got behind every track and even after the show when Blu and Exile came off stage both were mobbed by fans for ages, which certainly shows that absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder.

Personal highlights for me was every song performed from ‘Below the Heavens’ a couple of cuts from Blu’s Madlib and MED collaboration album ‘Bad Neighbour’ and a charged up performance of ’True n Living’ taken from the ‘Miles’ Album.

Overall this was a dope show and hopefully they’ll be back sooner rather than later.