Arguably one of the most underrated duos in Hip-Hop, Blu & Exile have been picking up their productivity in recent years by putting out new music and touring to reach their fans worldwide. 2024 saw the duo release their fourth album together, Love (the) Ominous World, and Blu himself expanded his footprint by releasing three other albums in collaboration with other producers, including Roy Royal (Royal Blu), Shafiq Husayn (Out Of The Blue), and Evidence (Los Angeles). With a ton of new material ready to bring to the stage, Blu & Exile capped off 2024 with a European tour in December, and have started 2025 with a 12-city Canadian tour throughout the month of March.

To the uninitiated, it may seem like Blu & Exile have been building up their fan base and leaving their mark on Hip-Hop at a slow and steady pace. Many fans know the Los Angeles-based duo for their underground classic debut, 2007’s Below The Heavens, while others have been slowly joining the party with every new release since then, some only discovering Blu during his massive run of releasing seven albums between 2023 and 2024. This writer admittedly finds himself somewhere in the middle, having listened to Below The Heavens when it first came out but not being aware of all the new music released between then and Love (the) Ominous World.

Whether you’re a day-one fan since ’07 or a new fan who got put on during the flood of new music Blu’s released in recent years, Canadian fans of Blu & Exile have been starved to see the duo perform live. This is probably why it was a packed house at Lee’s Palace for the third-last stop of the Canadian tour, with the parking lot behind the club filled to capacity. After circling the block a few times to find parking, the opening artists had already started performing by the time I got inside.

With Blu & Exile coming from that diverse wave of underground artists to debut in the blog era of Hip-Hop, the lineup of local artists warming up the stage represented that same kind of diversity, with each emcee having a unique style to their raps. It felt like being at an open mic night with so many different styles and flavours hitting the stage; B1 The Architect brought a hardcore yet conscious delivery throughout his 5-song setlist, one standout being the moody “Synopsis Of Our Fate,” and he’d be followed by Bo Gottaeat, who had a more Sci-Fi feel with songs like “Horses Mouth” (think El-P mixed with MF DOOM), and plenty of punchlines sprinkled throughout his dense rhyme schemes. For first-time listeners, it could be tough picking up on every lyric being spit, especially if you’re simply waiting for the headliner to come out, but bars with clever references like “snitches get caught like quidditch” pulled in the ears.

With the first few emcees to grace the stage being solo artists, the energy would switch up with the next act being a four-man group from Brampton, GRG CULT. The group itself was diverse, with Black, White and Asian emcees joining forces, and they brought a ton of energy to the stage with their chemistry on-point. Taking it back to the old-school with some posse-cut type of tracks and some call and response, they’d get the crowd turned up by the end of their set with a freestyle session seemingly inspired by “The Symphony” over the beat from Mos Def’s “Mathematics.” You can never go wrong spitting over a DJ Premier beat.

Next up would be an artist named TJM, who would be performing songs off of an upcoming album still in progress called Heart On My Sleeve. He would come with some more introspective tracks, going acapella at times to get his message across, and would be joined by an emcee named NRMN to perform a few collab joints with him. With TJM & NRMN having some bounce to their upbeat tracks, the next artist would take it back to the boom-bap, Generous Poet. A Toronto-based artist originally from Saudi Arabia, Generous Poet had some vivid storytelling in his raps, and displayed some sharp rhymes on songs like “No.1.” He’d even be joined by a saxophone player towards the end of his set to diversify the sound even further, bringing to life the jazz samples in his beats.

The final opener to hit the stage before Blu & Exile would be their touring support who’s joined them on all of the Canadian tour dates, but happened to be in his hometown here in Toronto, Spark Houston. This was my first time experiencing Spark Houston’s music, and what stood out was his ear for what sounded like Gospel and Folk samples in some of his beats. He would set up a mic stand and spit his raps standing in one place for most of his set, still bringing a ton of energy and nailing his delivery as if he was in a studio vocal booth. Songs like the new joint “Bob Dylan Lung” got the hometown crowd behind him, as he nailed the intense flow, and he made sure the energy was right for the headliners to come out.

The night was moving quickly with not much break time between artists, and things would move right along as Exile came out to get his gear set up. The crowd cheered as he started playing a live beat on his MPC, and pretty soon Blu would join him on stage, ready to tear it down on the mic!

With so many albums and so many Track 1’s to choose from to kick off the setlist, Blu & Exile picked out a few of them to hit us with in rapid succession, going from “Hello LA” from Love (the) Ominous World to a verse from 2023’s “Bad News” off an album by the same name, and eventually landing on the classic “My World Is…” from Below The Heavens. You could tell there were a bunch of day-one fans in the building, as the crowd got hyped as Blu spit the bars “and they still spell my name fucked up on the flyers / it’s B-L-U, if you see the E, drop ’em / it’s like they droppin’ E from the beats E is dropping,” with hands waving and heads nodding. They would continue to keep it raw and rugged, as Exile cut up a medley of beats on the turntables for Blu to spit a freestyle over, winning the fans over with their fundamental emcee and DJ dynamic.

Blu & Exile next performed a couple more throwbacks, going back to 2012’s Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them with the track “Maybe One Day,” and getting the crowd to join in with some call and response while performing the Below The Heavens cut “So(ul) Amazin’.” After consistently nailing his raps word-for-word with no backing vocals, Blu would take a minute to talk to the fans about his grind in recent years and the four albums he released in 2024. Shouting out the other producers he worked with, he’d perform a couple joints off of his Evidence collab, doing an ode to his hometown with “Los Angeles” and “The Land.” He’d then ask the fans who their favourite artists were (besides himself), some shouting out Marvin Gaye and MF DOOM, and he’d use this to introduce an Exile-produced song sampling one of his favourite artists, “Miles Davis.”

Getting back into Blu’s work with Exile, the duo would take it back to their roots, with Exile chopping up some more beats for Blu to freestyle over, including Redman’s “Tonight’s Da Night” beat. The freestyle would eventually turn into my favourite track off of Love (the) Ominous World, “Undisputed,” with Blu spitting his braggadocios raps over alternate beats cut up by Exile, eventually getting to the original beat from the album version by the second verse. Exile would next get to take the spotlight, creating a live beat on his MPC and playing it in real time. He’d even get on the mic, joining Blu at the front of the stage as they performed 2012’s “Growing Pains,” a rare track that features Exile rapping a verse along with Blu. Seeing Exile unexpectedly rip a verse got the crowd turned up!

Continuing on with more new joints off of Love (the Ominous World), Blu would get the spotlight back as he nailed his verses on “Smack,” getting the crowd to chant along to the hook “now we ’bout to show you how the west coast smacks kids!” and had everyone’s hands up as he performed the moody “Ominous World.” Exile would captivate the crowd again with another MPC interlude, and him and Blu would close out the segment for the new album with another fan favourite, “Gold,” that beat getting heads nodding. They’d sprinkle in another 2012 throwback in the setlist, performing “O Heaven” before moving on to another themed segment.

Despite Blu being the frontman on the mic, he would make sure to keep sharing the spotlight with Exile, letting him perform another MPC solo after giving him praises similar to Snoop Dogg’s outro on Xzibit’s “X.” This would serve as a pallet cleanser for the final segment of their setlist, as they’d take it back to ’07 for the day-one fans, performing a few classics off of Below The Heavens to close out the show. Blu & Exile had the crowd singing along as they performed one of the most relatable tracks in Hip-Hop, “Blu Colla Workers,” and Exile’s ear for dope soul samples would shine on “No Greater Love.” They of course saved their biggest hit for last, turning down the lights and getting everyone to light up their cell phones before a groovy performance of “Dancing In The Rain.” That smooth jazz sample would play them out as they left the stage, inviting the fans to meet them at the merch booth for pictures and autographs.

Overall, this was another dope night celebrating Hip-Hop and the diverse range of styles to be heard in its underground scene. Every emcee who graced the stage came correctly on the mic, all spitting raw raps with no backing vocals and bringing the right energy to keep the crowd engaged. Blu & Exile of course put on an epic performance as the headliners, equally celebrating their classic Below The Heavens as well as their new music. It was my first time seeing Blu & Exile perform live, and they brought all the good vibes and positive energy throughout their set, delivering a confident yet humble performance. It felt very much like a traditional Hip-Hop show, with Exile’s jazz and soul-infused beats and live DJing providing the perfect backdrop for Blu to deliver his captivating rhymes.

Big thank you to MODO-Live for granting this blog access to review this show!

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