Blu & Exile

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. His delivery flows flawlessly, while his content reflects the joy and pain of working class youth everywhere. Exile is a producer, DJ and occasional emcee previously known for being a member of the duo Emanon, along with Aloe Blacc. His style of production is known for its "laid back soulful vibes" and is influenced by such producers as J Dilla and Madlib. Blu & Exile's first album as a duo, 2007's "Below the Heavens", took LA hip hop back to the place where Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, and The Pharcyde left off. The album received much critical acclaim, with many considering it one of the best releases of the year. In 2011, with surprisingly little publicity, the duo released the long-awaited sequel, "Give Me Flowers While I Can Smell Them". Recording sessions took place over the course of 2009, however the duo decided to keep the release on hold due to bad audio quality and officially re-released the album on September 4, 2012 with a new updated track listing. The album features guest contributions from Fashawn, Homeboy Sandman, Johaz of Dag Savage, Black Spade of Hawthorne Headhunters, and ADAD. In 2020 the duo comeback with a new album called Miles. In 2024 we were blessed again with a new record called Love (the) Ominous World.

Dwynell was born and raised in North Minneapolis, and has been rapping since the age of 13. During that time when he first started writing, he was part of a collective called TCB (Twin City Boyz). His time with the TCB was spent largely perfecting his craft of freestyling, and honing his knack for writing songs with a stylistic flair similar to T3 of Slum Village or Schoolboy Q, perfecting his style while maintaining a writing style similar to Joe Budden. This is mostly shown when he has dropped various freeverses via his YouTube page, showing his effervescence over such beats as “Stay Schemin’” and “Shine Blockas”. Dwynell’s experience doing recorded material was on his first mixtape, Upside, which has shown the strides he’s made to perfect his songwriting craft, all the while making sure his style was at the forefront, with almost a drawl and depth to his voice. Dwynell released his debut EP, Make Due in October of 2012, and then started subsequent work on writing material for his album, called 92 and Roland, which continues to show vast improvement from his days in his teens, and freely talking about topics of partying and reflection, delivering feel-good jams that leave a listener with no choice but to nod and enjoy the various personas that Dwynell possesses. With the release of his Factors EP in August 2014, Dwynell started to explore more serious subject matter, such as on the track “She” about the quest for love gone awry, and that led him to new territory, such as garnering an opening spot on Prof Outdoors in 2016. Shortly after his performance, he released a new project called “The Popular Nobody,” a project that allowed Dwynell to crank the volume up to 11 and show why he is one of the standouts of the new crop of rappers hailing from Minneapolis.