Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them [Explicit Lyrics]

"Give me flowers before i can still smell them", is an album i really needed to get. It takes me way from the tautological mainstream rap, about making it big and explaining it in detail. I guess that it is just deep rooted in the USA, where people idolize successful persons and rightfully so. The album expresses his humanity, a regular day in blu's life. It makes me think maybe blu and i are not so different. Blu really showcases his Kaleidoscope like poetry.In an interview he said this album was just him venting spitting verses, as exile made tracks for him. I can sympathize for people who dislike his lo fi music like JESUS which happens to be his favorite album.But like blu says if you like it, you like it, if you don't well you don't. When he links up with exile it has a potential to be a modern classic. Also it appeals to the mainstream because below the heavens was such a hit. Overall a really well articulated album with dope production. "More out of life" and "a Man" are my two favorite tracks.

I was a huge fan of "Below The Heavens", considered it one of the best albums of 2007. After some underwhelming efforts like Johnson & Johnson, Blu came back with a bang last year on "Open".

GMMFWICST (Give Me My Flowers While I Can Smell Them) doesn't have a bad track on it. The jazzy beats by Exile are some of his best work of all time.

Don't think I need to say much more. If you know Blu, you simply need this album.

So Blu & Exile are back with their sophomore album. I'll be honest with you, I don't know much about Blu. I would always see people talk about him and their previous album "Below The Heavens," but I never took the time to actually look into these two. What sparked my interest with this was the cover and that amazingly clever album title. From what I've read, correct me if I'm wrong, this album was actually released/leaked a while ago, but this is the official mastered release. The only complaint I hear from fans of Blu is that he always releases music without properly mixing and mastering the content. I can understand that because he released a song not too long after this called "Lemonade" and the sound quality was terrible.

The album starts and ends with an instrumental provided by Exile. "Cent From Heaven," the album's outro, is definitely the stronger of the two, but it is dragged on a little too long. As a whole, Exile's production is fantastic. He sets such a laid back, relaxed, vibe that is missing in a lot of today's Hip Hop. A lot of producers feel that everything needs to be extremely heavy with a lot of bass. It's nice to know that there's still some producers out there that create that smooth Hip Hop sound.

For the most part Blu's lyrics are fantastic and he's very interesting to listen to. On top of that he has a lot of positivity in his music, which is another thing that is absent in a lot of today's Hip Hop, both commercial and underground. His flow is smooth and consistent, and it compliments Exile's production beautifully. Or maybe Exile's production compliments Blu's style beautifully? It all depends on what order they go in when creating an album.

There's not a whole lot I can complain about on here. I mean there were a few songs I didn't feel too much, but none of them were awful. I never felt the need to actually skip a song because there was always something that kept my attention. The only other minor gripe I have is that he censors random "curse" words. I wouldn't really mind it if he did it on the entire album, but it was literally just random words on random songs. There might be a reason behind this and I don't know it because I'm still new to him.

Standout Songs: "Maybe One Day (Feat. Black Spade)" "I Am Jean" & "A Man"

Overall Score: 9/10 - After a string of bad reviews it's nice to write one on something I actually enjoyed. This is definitely one of the better releases this year. Exile is an excellent producer and Blu is an excellent MC. What more can you ask for? I look forward to hearing more from these two.