Blu & Exile and Blu Detroit Tickets, Tsdmaac (sanctuary), 23 Jul 2026

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Venue

Tsdmaac (sanctuary)

48238, Detroit, MI, US

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Additional details

Doors open: 19:00

Concert in your area for Hip-Hop.

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Blu biography

Blu (born April 15, 1983) is the stage and performing name of Johnson Barnes, an American alternative Hip-Hop rapper and producer, hailing from Los Angeles, California, U.S.

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.

Live reviews

Blue & Exile have made quite a name for themselves, especially in the underground hip-hop scene but also in the wider world of hip-hop music with their songs appealing to people with a wide range of musical tastes! They are a duo made up of the rapper Blu and the hip-hop producer Exile and seeing them live combines the best qualities of the two – great rap vocals with a strong musical undercurrent and beat. Their London performance in 2012 was a great experience: walking in, the room was very smoky and the atmosphere buzzing as everyone got more and more excited to see the duo. Their performance of the song ‘No Greater Love’ was particularly memorable: such a laidback, cool song but the energy in the room was electric – everyone was cheering them on and singing along to the chorus and the hard-core fans were chiming in for the whole thing.
Luckily for fans, or budding fans, Blu & Exile have two albums out: ‘Below the Heavens’ was released in 2007 and ‘Give Me My Flowers While I Can Smell Them’ was released in 2012. Unfortunately, as of this moment there are no upcoming tour dates but there are plenty of songs available online and live gig recordings on youtube to tide you over. So get watching and preparing for the next time they are visiting your city!

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robin26

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.

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