1. An American rapper and produce… Read Full Bio ↴There are 2 artists with the name Blu:
1. An American rapper and producer from Los Angeles, California.
2. An ambient drum and bass musician located in the United Kingdom.
(1) Johnson Barnes (born April 15, 1983 in Inglewood, California), better known by the stage name Blu, is an American rapper and producer. In 2007 he released his debut album, "Below the Heavens", which was produced entirely by Exile, one half of Emanon. Since then he has collaborated with Mainframe under the name Johnson&Jonson, and with Ta'Raach under the name C.R.A.C. Knuckles. He has also released several solo albums, most notably "HerFavoriteColo(u)r" (2009), "j e s u s" (2011) and "No York!" (2011). Furthermore, in 2009 he produced the Sene & Blu album "ADayLate&ADollarShort" and in 2011 he released a second album with Exile, "Give Me Flowers While I Can Smell Them".
Blu is definitely a leader in the new school of Los Angeles emcees. His presence is undeniable, while his music captivates audiences regardless of race, class, and gender. He has been credited with taking LA hip hop back to the place where Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, and The Pharcyde left off.
With his cool-headed SoCal demeanor and everyman charisma, Blu was championed at the onset of his recording career when he collaborated with Emanon DJ/producer Exile for the highly acclaimed LP Below the Heavens (2007). Born Johnson Barnes in Inglewood, California, Blu, whose stepfather was a pastor, was very influenced by gospel and Christian rap when he was developing his MC skills in middle and high school. His musical turning point came when he first heard the Common classic "I Used to Love H.E.R." (1994), as well as the Chicago MC's third album, One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997). From then onward, Blu abandoned his schoolyard freestyle frame of mind and dedicated his abilities to crafting well-written songs. As he started doing live performances, he paid his dues working as a hype man for several underground rap and soul artists, including Slum Village, Steve Spacek, Platinum Pied Pipers, and, of course, Emanon. His relationship with Exile and newfound mindset in making music pointed him toward signing with L.A. independent Sound in Color in 2004, which for the young MC meant brushing off interest from Interscope and Death Row.
Subsequently, he cut a few records for Exile's Sound in Color album, Dirty Science (2006), recorded features for other L.A. artists, and self-pressed his Lifted EP in 2006. When Below the Heavens first hit shelves in August 2007, Blu and Exile were virtual unknowns in underground hip-hop, but Blu's deft songwriting and Exile's soul-drenched, Jay Dee-influenced production quickly amassed them a national audience. Below the Heavens ended up on many critics' year-end lists and, particularly, launched Blu into the public hip-hop eye. Remaining independent, Blu later turned to Sound in Color labelmate and L.A.-via-Detroit MC/producer Ta'Raach (formerly known as Lacks) for the collaborative project C.R.A.C. Knuckles. Over the next five years, Blu released a total of seven albums and mixtapes, including 2011's Open and Blu & Exile's Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them in 2012. The previously unreleased albums Her Favorite Colo(U)r and NoYork! also finally saw proper release in 2013. ~ Cyril Cordor, Rovi
The underground Los Angeles-based duo of MC Blu (b. Johnson Barnes) and DJ/producer Exile (b. Aleksander Manfredi) earned widespread acclaim right out of the gate with their debut album, Below the Heavens (2007), which critics crowned as the seemingly perfect marriage of Blu's everyday-struggle raps and Exile's Pete Rock- and J Dilla-inspired production. Blu, struggling to make ends meet at the time, first crossed paths with Exile in the early to mid-2000s, while the rapper earned gigs as a hype man for various soul/hip-hop outfits like Slum Village, Platinum Pied Pipers, and Exile's own duo, Emanon. In fact, Blu knew the other half of Emanon, MC/singer Aloe Blacc, who then introduced the two to each other. Deciding to sign to L.A. independent label Sound in Color, Exile's label home, in 2004, Blu began cutting a few records with the DJ/producer and assisted him with his solo LP, Dirty Science (2006). Blu was still trying to break into the industry, but Exile was enjoying production credits for the likes of Jurassic 5, Kardinal Offishall, and Mobb Deep. The release of the soul-entrenched collaborative effort, Below the Heavens in August 2007, put them both in the limelight and had fans of the alternative rap scene buzzing; however, it specifically garnered Blu many "Artist to Watch" features in various magazine and online publications throughout the year and into 2008. During subsequent years, they worked apart more than together; nevertheless, 2012 brought another co-billed LP, Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them. ~ Cyril Cordor, Rovi
Can't Stop Won't Stop
Blu Lyrics
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Uh, we up there with the ethers uh, yeah
Music is my medicine, I smoke calmly
I go numb but never below zombie
Stay catatonic, wrapped in mummy cloth
Phony baloney bunny hops, but the money talks
And now is the only time I listen
Words to describe my vision
Dramatic scene finale, suede green Bali
Fourth quarter my team start to rally
Score numbers on the board and tally
Laboratory like the tele
Bodies laid out on the couch
Blunts from the deli
Distract me from rubbing my belly
It get you stuck
Between the dirty asphalt and the
Rubber of my Pirelli it's a spiritual event
From above, the miracle is sent
Step motherfucker, step
I stepped out the door with what
I lit up still twisted
Dodging the system, it sees another victim
I've been plotting
Looking at my plants in the pot
And I been looking for the answer
Cause I dance in the dark
I talk a lot of shit
It comes as good intention
When them bells rung and names drop
Hit's as good as mentioned
I was looking for a spot and
Cut a hole in the fence
Then I stepped back and saw my entrance
They say, "Time's up"
This the dotted where I sign up
This the lotto where I find bucks
This the motto that defined us
Coming out the gates in Forces
Lord choirs dropping shit like some horses
Uh, the house holy but the office corporate
This life pricy but the war absorbed it
So don't blame me for the caution
Cause I ain't trying to get lost, no
I cannot afford it
Nah, this is not my love song
I mix my magic 'til the sun dawns
Busting like shotties to send the doves home
Blood bone ripping in the rolls of my toes
Kissing my foes
Looking for when I'm kicking my flows
I visit home, spit to get in the zone
Pimp the bowls on the stroll
Uh, rolling up the mistletoe, getting stoned
My kid's at home, missus I'm with is grown
My minutes on
Nigga, Benita's on a mission, she getting on
We got it like bitches, that gossipin' shit
Wildin' type
Wildin like we just got the island patrol
The style is like
A lion mount climbing a mount
Tryna break the throne
And set a staple like the
Los Angeles Lakers form
Same place that my cousin
Got them scrapers from
Play me dumb, I brought him
Right back to the stadium, nigga
Uh, palladium nuggets, pre macadamia
Fucking raps be immaculate
Couldn't imagine making them
Mack emotionless
Master records like I'm slaving them
Sarah Palin, paraphasia
These shades dangling
I can't stop, won't stop
Putting pieces together
Pull my TEC from the dresser
No one could do it better
Witness the mathematic equation of greatness
Homeostasis
Lab rat, resemble the same symbol as Masons
Cash that
The wizardry vividly paints imagery
Cash stacks
A flash in a frying pan of misery
Usually loves company, so I keep a strap
If she come for me
I'm blowing her back, triumphantly
The actual facts finesse pyramid fanatics
While trafficking crack
I seen sphinx get beheaded
Unique physique, I had to pad my mystique
Divine degree, felt my aura being breached
Retreat (Hold up) back to the drawing board, my shiny sword
Cut through the cadence for wages
I design and score
I'm so designer Lord, sail boat insignia
Stitched it to my ironing board
Burn you to oblivion (Woo)
Paraben free, terrible being
Higher than a red eye flight
So who you overseeing?
All together for every single letter
Better my character
Find self tucking on that walker pocket
The derringer
If, we ever up and close, uppercut, comatose
Waxed out money sounds based up
On a different note thin line, thinner rope
Tip-toeing my way through
Because I ain't got the time
For it, ignore it, i must
Burning one, knowledge of son moving forward
And I trust
The lust doesn't get the best of me
Gotta maneuver carefully
Thought the world was ready but
Really wasn't prepared for me
And my kind, I shines, you do the equivalent
This is what I'm dedicated to
No need for membership, see
I reminisce over the doja
Days looking over my shoulder
Didn't have to worry much
My older brother was there
Game warfare fueled in the fire still
But I can't stop, won't stop building
I never will
Yeah, for probable cause, I probably
Peer pressure had me breaking the law
Berate 'em all
Since 6th grade, bathroom stalls
Kissing girls
Madam, miss, I call 'em Miss Ellis, drawn
My spirit is torn scrolls on sixteen bars
Not a soul to assist me, empathy gone
Imperial
Echelon, to my enemies carry on, yeah
Comparing Kron to Genghis Khan
My gang strong taking chances that Lance
Armstrong made wrong
The bank kept a Brooklyn
Trombone and played on
Smoking ounces out over the couch
Was counting the sheep then
Bouncing on Little Bo-Peep but made them all
We didn't sleep, surrounded by the elite
I'm from the sewer deep
Not if you from my suites
If you the can't compete
And I just pray the lord
Care enough to carry me
Apparently, long way from the
Scale of parakeets scary street set
Niggas at school scared of me
Ha, yeah, I'm really a nice guy man
I rarely see the solidarity
Necessary to being in unison with
Universal family and it's the
Point of your existence
We searching for similarities
Between the fabric of dreams
And alter realities people are fabricated to
Portray a personality
If the image is tainted then
The person is a casualty
Thoughts, relate rapidly
Written with such majesty
The author has to be considered
At the level of mastery
We don't paint pictures
We sit and chisel the masterpiece
And make it hard for the
Average to rap after me
Ironically, my chronically despise
My typography the mind is steady minding
Eyes capture the photography
A life without monotony
Styliss inside the Massadine
Travelling amongst the people
Things I never thought I'd see
Appear to me, appeal to me
Dreams becoming real for me
It's surreal but how I feel
You can never kill the Infinite G
E-E-E-E-Energizer, visualizer, civilizer
City rider
Spider-Man web internet intertwining
Silver lining, diamond mine to
Mind of a diamond, refine and
Analyze and I'm grinding
I was not made for 9 to 5'in
Design a rhyme and two time
And 100K display science
The universal giant, mother Will from Zion
Splash bars, Master Fard, black Allah
Black Arabia plus lessons manifested from
A elder's cranium
Open sesame, the recipe is solely language
Invested in me
Powers that swift forever changing
Champions to champs to find a champ
Bust at your skully
Champion raps, champion hoodies, woody
Not be the man of the hour
If majority of the niggas in the
Game was really like ours
Good question, for this I was chose
I didn't choose what it do? Just a little
Something for my nigga Blu, what
In "Can't Stop Won't Stop," Blu reflects on his personal journey and the obstacles he's faced in his pursuit of success in the music industry. He describes music as his medicine, a therapeutic outlet that helps him cope with the challenges he encounters. The lyrics touch on themes of perseverance, self-expression, and staying true to oneself.
He emphasizes the importance of staying focused and not succumbing to the distractions and temptations around him. Blu uses vivid imagery to portray his experiences, from being wrapped in mummy cloth to the blunts from the deli distracting him from his goals. Despite the setbacks and uncertainties, he remains determined and refuses to let anything deter him from his path.
The song also delves into the idea of personal growth and self-discovery. Blu reminisces about his past, where he didn't have to worry much because his older brother was there to support him. However, he recognizes that he has outgrown that phase of his life and now needs to navigate his own path independently. Through this journey, he realizes the power of his own voice and the impact he can have on the world through his music.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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