Johnson "Blu" Barnes & Alec "Exile" Manfredi form one of the most successful underground groups. Few admit that their debut may be the best West Coast album released in the 2000s. But it may not even be, in any case, it's not known as much as it deserves. After a nine year hiatus, Blu & Exile are back releasing their third studio album, preceded by an explorative EP. "Miles: From an Interlude Called Life" is a double album.
Over ninety-five minutes for an album of only 20 cuts is a lot. Really a lot, the duo has exaggerated here. Exile's production is two steps below excellence (8), he builds a nice relaxed soundscape, but the rhythms are all quite similar: simple jazzy boom bap, with soul(ful) samples, and sparse lively syncopated drum machine. Like every single hip-hop double record, it lyrically suffers (6.5): Blu jots down lyrics on family, racism, history, autobiography, religion and pro-black themes, but without exploring any of them too much and often just coming up with some sort of name-dropping which tells us a lot less than the rapper himself would probably want to say.
The lyrics at the end are inconsistent, irregular and repetitive, Blu focuses on how he got here, and on occasion he manages to carve out excellent tracks thanks to his flawless flow and a series of commendable beats, yet most of the cuts are good or discreet, some great choices are marred by long, useless outros or wobbly functional hooks, there are too many fillers, and guests don't do too much to help. It's a very long album and there are really too many missteps to be a good double LP: the duo holds up an hour and a half and comes out winning but shaken, almost like Pyrrhus in 280 BC.
The introductory song is "Blue": good boom light jazzy bap, with a thin and lively drum, strings in the background and samples of a child who says "blue" in the background more and more distant; good slow smooth light delivery by Blu. "Miles Davis" is among the strong points of the tape: scratched functional chorus, light jazzy boom bap, dope, Miles Davis sample, good rapper delivery. "Bright as Stars" has one of the best rhythms, soulful choruses that corroborate Exile's amazing soulful jazzy boom bap. "Requiem of Blue" is a relaxed track, relaxing vibes, Fashawn is good.
"Miles Away" boasts Blu's light smoothness delivery on Exile's simple jazzy boom bap, simple song with an honest performance by CS Armstrong, this great slow rhythm is backed up by a tribute to Jay Electronica's "Exhibit C", splendid tribute. In "Troubled Water" Exile is overcome again, with a jazzy dope rhythm; reggae intro by Gappy Ranks, good cut. It's quite curious that the track that precedes what should have been the pure highlights of the record, is instead one of the most popular ones despite being a reggae half-filler.
I don't think "Roots of Blue" can be among the high points of the album, but it deserves an honorable mention: simple rhythm of Exile, female soulful sample, then after almost a minute, the rhythm stops; spoken intro, simple jazzy boom bap, with skinny tight and slow syncopated drum machine and a slow flowing monotone delivery by Blu with tightly looped distant female sample. Nine minutes and something, it might be the hardest hurdle of the whole album judging by the tracklist exclusively, but it's not. Four verses, the rhythm and delivery begin to feel monotonous and lifeless. But that's not the problem either: Blu doesn't start badly, but not good either, so in the middle of his first verse, he spits «I'm the son of Ra, the son of Ka, father of Africa» and then goes completely crazy, letting go a name-dropping that lasts three and a half verses. All without sense.
Rating: 7.5/10.
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