(Instagram/Blu)
Rapper Blu and producer Exile are no strangers to commemoration. Back in 2012, they released Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them. Now, also courtesy of Dirty Science Records, they bring us “Miles Davis” from their upcoming album, Miles: From an Interlude Called Life.
On “Miles Davis,” Exile exploits per usual vintage sound sampling. He channels in trumpeter icon Davis’ spirit through rapper 2Pac–“Miles Davis cuttin’ loose with the band” from 2Pac’s post-humous “Thugz Mansion” song scratched in. “Miles,” as it is abbreviated, is available July 17–the same day in 2007 Blu & Exile released the fan favorite, and magnum opus Below The Heavens.
This time, the pair enlisted past collaborators and Los Angeles compatriots Miguel, Fashawn and Aloe Blacc. Aloe Blacc, Exile’s old bandmate, introduced Blu and Exile to one another, sparking the beginnings of what is now a five-project catalog of fine audio. The album co-stars some more Los Angeles talent. Rapper Aceyalone also comes through with a feature. They’re “bringing it back to some of the traditional sounds and grassroots,” Blu tells Complex. “We decided to go and pull from some of the people who helped pioneer our sounds.”
The “Miles” album release itself toasts to the legend of one of the most important and influential jazz artists–music artists–of the 20th century. It marks 65 years since the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival where Miles Davis performed on the same stages as Duke Ellington, Count Bassie, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan and bassist Percy Heath. Newport led to a 52-album catalog through 1985 with Columbia Records.
Pre-order the vinyl and/or digital versions of Miles here. The track list for Miles and streaming services for the “Miles Davis” single and Miles album are available below through Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp.
- “Blue”
- “When the Gods Meet” feat. Ishe
- “True & Livin”
- “Miles Davis”
- “The Feeling” feat. Jacinto Rhines
- “Music Is My Everything” feat. Choosey & Jimetta Rose
- “Bright As Stars” feat. Aceyalone, Iman Omari & Ishe
- “Blue As I Can Be”
- “You Ain’t Never Been Blue”
- “Miles Away” feat. C.S. Armstrong
- “Troubled Water” feat. Gappy Ranks
- “Roots of Blue” feat. Jacinto Rhines
- “African Dream” feat. Gappy Ranks & Aloe Blacc
- “Requiem of Blue” feat. Fashawn
- “The American Dream” feat. Miguel & The Last Artful, Dodger
- “Dear Lord” feat. Jimetta Rose
- “To the Fall, But Not Forgotten”
- “All the Blues”
- “Spread Sunshine”
- “The End” feat. Dag Savage, CashUs King & ADAD
