Tosten Burks has a wallet as big as NBC’s Chris Wallace.
No point recounting the overshroomed self-destruction that drowned the past several years of Blu’s post-Warner career in lo-fi isolationism. The past is the past and if you hated him for it, you’re probably justified, but you also missed out on some of his best music. But now, the fuzz is gone. Showman Blu is back, slicing loose drums into pieces.
Nature Sounds dropped “The West” this week to announce a May release date for Blu and Bombay’s double album Good To Be Home. The song
finds the rap Huxtable bouncing from street to street rocking colorful hats after a storm. His wild west is one where the system serves the
city and the city stains the walls. Tricky drums left wide open, scratched hooks in the emptiness. Bombay demands hard listening. “Dre Day” and “Summertime” were cool, but this is cold.
And then there’s “Need You,” the single off L’Orange’s upcoming project The Orchid Days. Here Blu brags loony over the type of dusty black-and-white-film piano loops that anchored “Amnesia.” Dizzying assonance kung-fu, complete with Chuck Norris karate boots and a shout-out to Bruce Leroy. Blu confirms what those who stuck with him through the mess have known all along – he is the Last Dragon, once again spitting fire outside the unmixed and unmastered cave.
