LA rapper Blu is a polymath, a visionary, a documentarian and an iconoclast all at once, doing what he needs to do exactly how and when he needs to do it. His 2007 full-length Below the Heavens (with the infinitely adept Exile) is a local classic, and there’s plenty of future classics in the rest of his discography—like his Warner album NoYork!, built with the best of the Low End Theory-era beatmakers, or his hyperactive collabs C.R.A.C. Knuckles or Johnson&Jonson. On this spring’s long-awaited Good to be Home, he delivers his own agile and unpredictable personal version of The Chronic—a day in the life of an LA neighborhood, viewed through the eyes of Blu and backed by fiery producer Bombay. Some might call him a rapper’s rapper, but let’s go all the way—really, he’s an artist’s artist.
Wed., July 30, 8 p.m., 2014
