Another day, another Blu update..

Looks like it was shot in Paris? if Exile shot that stuff he's talented, but we already knew that. Video is dope.

The West Coast Enigma speaks to LA Stereo.TV on the spiritual reason The Roots sought him, his first label release and album credits that'll "be worth reading," (Samiyam, Flying Lotus, Exile, Cherry Pop, Sa-Ra Creative, U-God...) and why he chooses to be part of the electronic hip-hop genre.

Shoutout to Stephanie Rennie, Phil Davis, Inka One, Bianca G, Mainframe, J. Kevin Swain. Also a BIG shout out to Jasmin from takingyouover.com for her invaluable contribution.

Here's a remix of Bilal's "Think It Over," by Exile brought by VTech & Plug Research. "Exile manages to update the track's original throw-back feel (produced by 88-Keys) with added kick-drums, chants, haunting echoes, and resonating baselines, while still capturing the overall essence of the original version. "

Check it out

Above a vid of Exile doing his thing at Boombox. I have tons of jewels like that that I should be posting. A big shout out to Exile and Bilal, two LA Stereo favorites.

 Aloe Blacc adds a soulful edge to his rendition of Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale.  In this video, director Alan Algee, warps us circa 1960, where a heartbroken man warns others about his beautiful back-stabbing lover.

Aloe's latest album Good Things is out now.

Rebecca Haithcoat in her first on screen interview talks with Fashawn about the real Santiago, how he draws strength from his stage name, and how someone so young can come up with such raw emotion. If you haven't already cop "Boy Meets World" it's a jewel.

Live at Zanzibar peforming the Score then freestyling on mad Exile beats. I can proudly say I recognized the intro sample, it's Barry White's I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby

Laughter just barely overtakes the beats tripping out of his house as Exile opens the door. He’s been working on his rap album, the one he’s been making since 2007, during the same time he and Blu were making “Below the Heavens.” Of course, with the exception of one beat, he’s also doing the production.

Exile lives both sides of the coin. Seeing him socially, you can almost imagine him as a happy-go-lucky fourth grader, playing some prank and then running off to hide and stifle his giddiness.  But in the studio, Fashawn, for whom Exile produced last year’s “Boy Meets World,” says Exile is all business. He agrees. “I know exactly what I want, and I know how I want it, and I’ll tell you.  First I’ll have to get to know you so you won’t hate me.  Or I’ll have to be quiet when I first work with you and let you do what you wanna do.  Even if I don’t like it, I can’t tell you right off the bat or it could fuck up the relationship.  It’s like getting to know a woman; you can be yourself, but you gotta do a little dance.” 

He walks into his lab, a small room with one wall almost covered in old black and white photographs yellowing at the edges.  “That’s my dad,” he says.  “I’m gonna take his reels, and I’m gonna make a whole album from that. And I’m gonna re-release my dad’s stuff.  It’s a great way for us to work together while he’s gone.”

The son of a musician, Aleksander Manifredi didn’t see his father from age six to thirteen—he was “fucking around with drugs, so it wasn’t the right environment”—but he’d give Aleksander drum lessons when he did see him.  His mother, who was in and out of mental institutions, partied with his sister, a “crazy goth chick” who did a lot of drugs, which left Aleksander to be the grown-up in the house.  His father passed away when Aleksander was only eighteen, and still bitter. 

He recalls a story about Blu: “I remember this one time, Blu was having family problems, and he really wanted to see his mom.  He was in Long Beach, so I went there and took him to his mom’s- he didn’t have her number, but he just knew he had to see her.” But Blu’s mother didn’t live there anymore, so Exile drove him all the way back to Long Beach. “At this point, it was like, five in the morning.  And this song by Johnny Cash comes on, about his father, and I’m just crying in the car. And I came home, and I made this song about my dad, and it’s one of my favorite songs on the album.”

It seems his past—the early responsibility, youthful resistance and retrospective reconciliation—has influenced his affinity for uncovering some of the best, and youngest, talent to emerge from the West Coast in the past few years.  Fashawn was 20 when he and Exile made “Boy Meets World,” and he and Blu began working together when Blu was 19.  Both albums they created are reminiscent of backsliding gospel-choir anthems, or lullabies a 1940s chanteuse might’ve sung in a sad, soul-soaked club—all overlaid with Exile’s signature MPC trickery.  

Exile envisioned replicating the sort of mentor relationships that early East Coast pioneers established.  “I wanted to help bring up the West Coast, find artists like DJ Premier or Marley Marl would do,” he says, “Blu’s style grew and developed before my eyes.  Back then he was an artist who didn’t really have any solid material, and I saw potential in him.”  But he aims for symbiosis in the studio, growing with and building a relationship with the artist. “I’m not religious but I definitely believe in putting what you want out there and it coming to be.  Sometimes I’ll pray to have a connection with the people I’m working with.”

With statements like that, you can’t help but consider Exile an embodiment of the 16th century origin of the word “artist.” Yes, he’s realistic, jokingly asking how he can get his name on everybody’s lips, but he’s also deliciously removed from the current commerciality and dizzying pace of hip hop. He hates the Internet because it demystifies so much. He’s not really sure what’s going on in L.A.’s concert/club scene.  He asks what Wiz Khalifa is “teachin’ the kids.”  

He began doing graffiti when he was thirteen, and just churned out a piece in Germany on his recent European tour. Scattered around his house are “found object” sculptures he’s made.  And his spirit has the youthful curiosity and buoyancy of an artist: He suddenly leaps up from the porch and lopes off to retrieve a little sculpture with which he wants to play show-and-tell. 

“All I want to do is to do what I do and make people have fun, a more positive time,” he says simply. Without a trace of arrogance, he completes the thought, “In every way, really, I’m doing exactly what I planned on doing, making classic records for the West Coast.”  Correction: He’s making artistic records for posterity. 

Exile is one of L.A.'s most prominent producers having produced two masterpieces such as Blu's "Below the Heavens" & Fashawn's "Boy Meets World".  Here is a free Radio remix album featuring talent like DJ Rhettmatic, Dibiase$e, Mike Gao, Teebs, Donwill & more. Download here: http://www.thedirtyscience.com/dirty-news/exile-radio-remixes/

Support Exile, make sure to cop his album "AM/FM" that drops Aug 31st with features from Blu, Fashawn, Shafiq Husayn, Samiyam, Free The Robots, DJ Day, Evidence, Alchemist, Krondon, ALoe Blacc and many more.

In the meantime check out his new site http://www.thedirtyscience.com/

Cali-raised artist Aloe Blacc discusses with us his musical influences growing up as a first generation African-American, his definition of soul music, his upcoming collaboration with Exile, his record label Stones Throw and how they are pushing the envelope and finally his success with " I need a Dollar" now featured on HBO's series "How to Make it in America" . New album "Good Things" dropping in September. Something else to look forward to...

Shoutout to Nu-Soul, Downtown Unplugged the new event put up by Sketch the Specialist & B-52 for facilitating the interview.

-photography by kasey stokes

While we interviewed Aloe, he drew our attention to a track (Death is Fair) he'd worked on with Exile (together known as Cali duo EMANON) and how he'd linked up the lyrics to some of the subject matter he was alluding to: here on his site. It's pretty cool and instructive. It's safe to say that both Exile & Aloe are great experimenters, and I'd expect this really simple concept to be used ad inifinitum, once the multimedia technology enables it.

"Back in the lab with Exile working on new songs for the next EMANON album, Birds Eye View. I had some downtime came up with the idea to link the words in my lyrics to relevant articles and videos for you all to enhance the meaning of the song. It gives you a better sense of what I'm talking about."

Before I put out some fo the footage of Exile shot at Boombox, I wanted to highlight this creative animation video by Exile made from 100% local AM/FM airwave samples. You've probably have all seen it. If not WATCH. It's crazy to be talented on so many levels.