Blu

While there's certainly been no lack of Blu releases over the past few years, given his disjointed, though impressive, stream of mixtapes, collaborations and self-produced instrumentals, it's easy to see how a hot gem or two could fall through the cracks. One such drop was 2009's curious concept piece, Her Favorite Colo(u)r. The snide collection of songs for jilted lovers finds the dexterous wordsmith/beat creator heaping both sorrow and scorn on love lost over an array of smooth jazz samples and film snippets, with these two elements carrying just as much weight in the mix as his words. Clive Owen's twisted break-up scene from Closer is cleverly soundtracked on "Morning," while Billie Holiday's mope-y "Am I Blue" supplies a fitting base for Blu's sullen musings on "Amnesia." Bitterness flies over a slick Mayfield groove on "Pardon" and the deceptively quant "Vanity" before the interesting flip of Radiohead's "You And Whose Army" behind "Untitled(LovedU)2" adds a little breadth to the producer's range. Throughout the set, Blu does well to employ enough creativity and butter grooves to mask such a largely untouchable rap record premise. And with its 30-minute running time, this short album works as an ideal interlude before the man's next great feat.