Johnson Barnes III (born April 15, 1983), better known by his stage name Blu, is an American rapper and record producer from Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his group Blu & Exile and their debut album Below the Heavens (2007). He is a forefront member of the California-based collective, Dirty Science. Blu is also co-CEO of New World Color, a label through which he has released many of his projects. He is recognized for his collaboration albums between him and various producers such as Exile, Mainframe, Ta'Raach, Bombay, Damu the Fudgemunk, Madlib, Nottz, and Union Analogtronics.
Musical career
By age 19, Blu was selling out local shows at the Knitting Factory, House Of Blues, and headlining once a month at the Rumba Room on Universal City Walk. Back then, he recorded with various rap groups such as the Ill Flava Crew, Infinite Legacy crew, The Untouchable Mob, Glory For The People, The LA Metro Crew and the Bridgetown Steel Crew. He was also a contestant on the MTV game show, "Who Knows The Band" and won. Grammy award-winning producer Megahertz had flown Blu out to New York to sign him to his new label after producing hits for Jay-Z, R Kelly, P Diddy, Busta Rhymes, and Nas but eventually walked away from the deal. At age 20, he had started negotiating a record deal with Death Row Records but decided to independently release his first solo album titled "California Soul". It was produced by early collaborators, L's and Bombay. It featured Bridgetown crew members; Donel Smokes (Black Spade) and Miguel as well as then RRAG Records label mate, RBX.
2005–2008: Below the Heavens, C.R.A.C. and Johnson&Jonson
After doing a feature for the group Science Project, Blu was introduced to Aloe Blacc, who was also featured on the album. Aloe Blacc said he had heard a lot about Blu and said he should work with the DJ/producer of his group Emanon, Exile. Exile came out to a Blu show, and afterwards invited him to be on his new compilation album entitled "Dirty Science" on Sound In Color Records. After hearing Blu on various compositions throughout Exile's album, "Sound In Color" signed Blu to a one-album deal and immediately began to feature him on various releases for the label. After working with Oh No, and reaching out to J Dilla and Madlib for production on his own album, Blu decided to have Exile produce his entire LP for Sound In Color. By the time the album was done, Blu had completed two other full-length albums, one with Detroit hip-hop rapper/producer Ta'Raach and with Sound In Color/Operation Unknown producer and CEO, Mainframe.
In 2006, Blu pressed up the Lifted EP and mixtape premiering various productions with Exile and songs with J Dilla and KRS-One. While an opening act on a tour with Seattle-based LifeSavas and Dallas-based Strange Fruit Project, Blu discovered all three of his unreleased but fully completed full-length albums had leaked. The leak grew and crowds already knew his songs as he debuted them at each show for the rest of the tour. These three albums began to build a huge buzz online and caught the attention of Okayplayer, as well as other sites like HipHopDX and Nah Right, who all named him "Rookie Of The Year". The Exile-produced album was eventually released in 2007, entitled Below the Heavens. However, since the label Sound in Color were almost bankrupt, only 7,000 copies of the album was pressed on CD, with no vinyl other than the single for the album, "The Narrow Path", which was also released in 2006. The label went bankrupt a few months later following the release.
In 2008, Blu & Ta'Raach released the album titled The Piece Talks under the moniker C.R.A.C. (or C.R.A.C. Knuckles). It was completely produced by Ta'Raach and featured Shawn Jackson, Noni Lomar, and Jazmin Mitchell. Originally sold on tour in 2005, the album included their hit single, "League Leaders" (The Friar cover) and the 6 inch single, "The King".
During that same year, Blu's album with Mainframe was released under the group name Johnson&Jonson. It was produced by Mainframe with rapping by Blu (alongside some occasional rapping from Mainframe), as well as features from Gonja Sufi and Miguel. It was promoted with a mixtape called Powders & Oils, which consisted of a few more exclusive songs. All of Johnson&Jonson's music consisted of only loops and raps.