Pursuit of Happiness: Blu & Exile Let Time — and Friends — Do Its Job

In the middle of a chilly April afternoon, Blu explains why his wellness journey is more about mental activities than anything physical. But his musical partner Exile is calling cap, “He’s just trying to avoid working out.” 

It’s funny, but it’s easy to see why Blu’s wellness battle starts in the mind. That much is true for most people. But it’s especially true for one of the most potent wordsmiths the West Coast has ever produced. With a poet’s skill for observation, any micro moment can turn into a snowballing sphere of eternal truths he’ll eventually turn into bars. It’s been true on all his albums to date, and that remains the case on Time Heals Everything, his latest project with Exile. For the tape, Blu fuses rippity raps with soulful production and hazy memories. There are words of wisdom in the album, but the title itself is a gem, too. 

“Time Heals Everything is basically about having patience,” he tells Okayplayer. “It's just a message to have patience [and know] that your reward is coming.”

Speaking to Okayplayer, Blu and Exile make it clear that simply being here is a reward they don’t take for granted. They speak on that and more for the latest edition of Pursuit of Happiness. 

Blu: In 2015, I got robbed on the same day my brother got a double life sentence. It was the same day I found out I was having a child. I went through a bunch of stuff that year that brought me down and triggered an episode of psychosis that even bled into my music career. I was online flipping out on my friends and people were really wondering what was wrong with me. I didn't even know what was wrong with me until later, when I was able to seek help and counsel and therapy for it and realize what I was going through. But that was like a weight of a whole lot of s—t just piled on me. 

I did the first six months of 2016 in jail. I had quite a few street fights. It's not easy in jail. Police were after me and people were trying to stab me in the back. I was thinking all this shit when I first got locked up. But as time kept progressing, my lady would write me a letter every day and express her love for me. Every day. And it was opening my eyes to the truth as opposed to what was going on in my mind. And I was able to find that. I was able to find myself reading books, getting back to what I love, even though I was so far from it because I was in jail. But in there, I was able to find myself again. Without having any friends around to hit up whenever I needed to, I was able to find the truth again. 

These days, I avoid negativity so well because I feel my life has so much positivity. I just stay as optimistic as possible about everything. I stay as creative as possible. I try to put all that positivity into all the aspects of my life so I'm filled with that positivity and optimism wherever I go. When negativity comes along, it can't even penetrate. Everything's not going to be perfect, so keep your mind as close to perfect as you can. Think about what you want out of life and strive for that. Strive to attract that, and strive to work for that. Work to build your world around that.

Exile: I had a pretty hard upbringing with my mother's mental health. She would pretty much attempt to take her life almost every year. I had to deal with that as a young kid. It really pushed me into creating my own world through music. I feel lucky to have the mind that I have, for other people who may have been in a similar situation may have not been able to handle it as well.

When my mother passed, I rode my bike 60 miles from L.A. to the beach in Orange County. And I would do crazy shit. I would make it there at night and I would jump in the ocean and swim because I put her ashes in the water. I just let it all out, and it ended up being one of those amazing moments in my life. The pain transformed into just something amazing.

To get away from negativity, I ride my bike a lot. I hike and I pray. It's hard running Instagram as an artist and looking at comments. I love to delete Instagram from my phone. You're going to end up seeing it if it's on your phone. So deleting that helps me a lot for my mental health. Just knowing what I'm thankful for has been huge for me, because if you don't know what you're thankful for, you're going to get things that you're not thankful for. You’ve got to train your vision to be able to see the things that you want in life. 

I still reach points where I know my mental health is not good, but I'm very aware, and I know how to fix things. I just have to do the work and I know how to do the work.

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