Sixshot.com: I've read that some of your first influences in hip-hop were DMX and Mase. What was it about those two guys that impressed you?
Blu: Well the first two rap CDs I ever had were, “Big Willy Style” by Will Smith and Mase's “Harlem World”. I grew out of Will real quick and then I stuck with Mase because he was on TV with Puff all the time. But I liked all the songs DMX were on, on Mase's album. I eagerly waited for DMX to drop his solo and when he did, I was definitely his number one fan. I looked at DMX as the Tupac for my generation. I thought he would be the illest but things change.
Sixshot.com: Your C.R.A.C project was critically acclaimed across the board. Were you happy with the responses you got?
Blu: Yes. We developed a cult following and we can always depend on our core fans to reach for whatever we drop. No matter how left it will be. If they weren't ready for this then they wont be ready for “Fried Cotton” or “Bob Smiles”.
Sixshot.com: At what point would you say that people really started to notice you in terms of the music?
Blu: Soon after Below The Heavens was released is when people really started paying attention.
Sixshot.com: Growing up in Cali were you ever influenced by the West Coast greats like Dre and Snoop?
Blu: No, in the fourth grade is when Chronic dropped. I was more of a fan of hearing girls on the playground singing "Bitches Ain't Shit" than hearing "Gin and Juice" on the radio on the way to school.
Sixshot.com: You do a lot of shows and you've been overseas. What are some of the craziest thing you've experienced?
Blu: I accidentally crowd surfed in front of 30,000 people in Belgium. I had an entire hotel in London evacuated including old people and parents with children at twelve at night because I was smoking that bomb bomb in a no smoking room, huh? I turned down a threesome in Madrid, drunk out of my mind with a model and an actress on my bed in the PuertAmerican Hotel (Google It). I smoke more weed than anyone I’ve ever met in Amsterdam. In Berlin, I had an affair with a popular soap opera actress that can rap better than anyone I know in Swiss. The stories go on and on my man.
Sixshot.com: Can you tell us about the creative process for Johnson and Johnson?
Blu: I would walk to Mainframe's crib in Long Beach. We would record a Below The Heavens song and then we would pull and loop up three or four records in about an hour. Then I would pen to the dope ones and then we would record it while we were drinking ghetto made wine and smoking Euro's and DJarums.
Sixshot.com: Is going to a major label something you would ever consider?
Blu:Yes I would, when they are ready for change.
Sixshot.com: On Below the Heavens it seemed like every song dealt with a different type of life situation. Was it important for you to get those points out there?
Blu:Yea, but we cut over fifty songs for the record and just chose the best ones. The record just so happened to come together that way.
Sixshot.com: Do you have a process when writing rhymes or does it just sort of come naturally?
Blu: I got too many different remedies man. Sometimes it comes easy and naturally to me and sometimes its forced. But it will come out.
Sixshot.com: All right Blu, tell us about everything you have coming up.
Blu: Johnson & Jonson is coming up; we got a self-titled record also that is produced by Mainframe and myself, which is definitely my rawest homage to the art form. Sens and Blu, "A Day Late And A Dollar Short" is coming as well. This will be my debut on the production end of things. Sens is handling all the rapping duties, and well. More Blu and Ex, more CRAC, and more John Jon. Bad Boy ‘96, and we won’t stop!
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