The Cluny
36 Lime Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ, NE1 2PQ
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n 2007, while headlines were dominated by Kanye West vs. 50 Cent and the industry fixated on first-week sales, two artists on the West Coast were quietly crafting something timeless. Blu and Exile weren’t chasing the spotlight — they were building their own gravitational pull.
On July 17, 2007, they released Below the Heavens — a debut that felt more like a sacred document than a first statement. Soul-soaked, sample-driven production. Raw, unfiltered vulnerability. No gloss. No gimmicks. Just truth pressed into wax.
Early believers recognized it immediately. Underground purists and tastemakers hailed it as an instant classic. Limited to just 3,000 physical copies and leaked prematurely online, its scarcity only strengthened its mythology. If you had it, you understood. If you didn’t, you were already behind.
