2008 HipHopDX Awards

won: Slept on Album of the Year

After the sneaky success of last year’s Below The Heavens, Blu released two albums this year. Whereas C.R.A.C. left some a bit unsettled, Johnson & Jonson, a collaboration with rookie producer Mainframe, was the Supreme Clientele of the underground. Dynamic ’70s sampling, cocky-yet-vulnerable rhymes and age-old life lessons made this reportedly shelved project from 2006 sound like brand new funk, with some revisions and updates. Blu landed himself appearances with Evidence and Talib Kweli, plus an XXL cover spot this year, but this gem of an album, like the one last year, went under the radar of many looking for the next worthy microphone fiend. We have now entered the Blu period.

Runner up: Album of the Year

Johnson & Johnson by Johnson & Jonson

Blu provides the same common-man rhymes that made Native Tounges’ emcees prolific, with an against-the-grain delivery that meshed perfectly with Mainframe’s dusted, bedroom sound

Runner up: Verse of the Year

“Hold On John” by Blu (second verse)

A bonus track on the Johnson & Jonson album, Blu reflected on funerals, addiction and life’s ills on a John Lennon-channeled cut in the vein of “Get By” and “T.R.O.Y.”

( VIA HIPHOPDX.COM )