Initially influenced by gospel, Christian rap, and later gangster rap, Barnes’ break into the industry came as the hype man for rap and soul artists including Slum Village, Steve Spacek and Platinum Pied Pipers. Leaving his free-styling ambitions behind and developing a bond with producer Exile, Blu signed with the L.A.-based independent label Sound in Color in 2004, over major-label equivalents Interscope and Death Row.
Blu’s debut album “Below the Heavens” arrived in August 2007 and catapulted Blu’s laid-back and well-crafted songwriting style and Exile’s soul-inspired production a national audience. The album earned critical acclaim for its thoughtful and independent nature and ended up making a number of year-end lists. The following year Blu collaborated with Ta’Raach on the album “The Piece Talks”, and later with producer Mainframe, the album "Johnson&Jonson".
After forming the company New World Color alongside Mainframe, Blue released his solo project mixtape “(So)ul Amazing”, followed by his sophomore album “Her Favorite Colo(u)r” in 2011. With his new found respect and popularity Blu has subsequently released a number of well-received mixtapes and studio albums including “Open”, “Jesus” and “The Norman Rockwell Beat Tape” in 2011, alongside Exile again, “Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them” in 2012, “York” in 2013, and “Good to Be Home” in 2014.
Johnson Bares, aka. Blu is one of the most talented rappers I’ve seen perform live. Usually, there’s at least one of two small mistakes in the lyrics, or with the diction of the performer, but Blu was flawless, with perfect diction and not one mistake throughout the set. With six full length albums under his belt, I had no idea how he was going to select his set list, but of course I knew it would be amazing regardless. His DJ was also incredible, making sure that he followed Blu perfectly, and when he did section of improvisation he manipulated the sound track to make sure that he was in time.
He opened the show with his track The Clean Hand, which went down really well, and had everyone singing along from the start. He encouraged the audience to sing along with him, and he held out the microphone to the audience so that we could join in. It was a great environment, and knowing that the artist is concerned with whether the audience are having a good time is awesome.
He would stop half way through tracks to ask us ‘how you all doing’, to which we’d all reply with huge cheers. It was the most fun, and a real display of talent.
Two hours of crazy nutty Japanese fun. That is how I would describe this Exile show. I do not understand a single word of Japanese but you know what they say… When in Tokyo… Go see Exile, so that’s what I did.
Their outfits obviously were the highlight of the show, gotta love those crazy pants. But really the crowd as a whole was so captivated and into them it really made for a crazy fun experience. Glow sticks, lighters, everything, it was almost as if it was a mellow rave at points. I liked how the stage was almost like a huge jungle gym..
So many paths and things to climb on that it really made for fun entertainment just watching them all run around. It always amazes me how a group like this can captivate an entire audience like this and they pulled it off.
If you’re looking for a fun Japanese band of dudes, this is your group. If you’re looking for just a fun wild night, these are also your guys. If you just want to shake your hips, sing along and have some fun, these are also your guys.
Music is all about performance, and these guys perform well, and the crowd and myself really enjoyed it. You would too, go check them out!