“It's just a lot of content creation that you have to keep up with,” Blue says, referring to the expectation for artists to be active on TikTok. “Not that I'm opposed to that or that I'm above it or whatever. It's just not my thing.”
Blue moved to Brooklyn in 2018 and told the Observer at the time that he no longer felt like he was progressing in Dallas. At 38, however, he says the grind he found there was exhausting.
“I just felt like I just needed to slow down, lifestyle-wise, after being in New York for what, seven years?” Blue says. “It just felt right. It felt like it was time to come home. So here I am.”
Blue broke out in the early 2010s as the founder of the influential Dallas hip-hop collective Brain Gang and created beats for the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q.
The Blue, the Misfit who left Dallas and the Brandon Blue who returned, however, are drastically different artists.
During his time in New York, the artist cultivated an interest in dance music and DJed. His imagination was captured by house, Afrobeats, reggaeton and other genres outside the scope of hip-hop.
“I have roots in production already, " he says. “A lot of the DJs that I was around also came from production backgrounds, and the more that I saw them making edits and clips and remixes and mashups and stuff like that, the more I felt like I could easily slide into that game too. It was just a refreshing way to put new life in the old songs.”
Blue has remixed artists ranging from Charli XCX to Kanye West, and his varied mashups include combining Linkin Park with Future, and Ice Spice with Drowning Pool. The unexpected switch-ups and transitions kill in the club.
“The crowds that go to parties for that kind of music, the energy is always good,” he says. “Who doesn't want to gravitate to good energy? I just kind of fell into it naturally.”
This passion has proven fruitful for him. In New York, he would play seven nights a week at clubs across the city. Since moving back to Dallas, he’s played Austin City Limits and has a DJing residency at Double D’s.
Not bad for someone who’s supposedly slowing down.
“A bunch of things are just randomly happening right now,” he says. “I moved back and hit the ground running.”
He also opened for Tinashe’s Match My Freak Tour at Southside Ballroom and remixed her single “Nasty” earlier this year. He wasn’t familiar with the R&B singer until “Nasty” started gaining traction.
“I've heard her music throughout the years, especially in clubs,” he says. “But I think what drew me to the song was TikTok. [...] I was like, ‘This is catchy. Maybe I'll do something with this before it kind of takes off.’”
His remix has been streamed almost 30,000 times on Soundcloud.
Dallas’ cultural landscape has changed almost as much as Blue’s sound in the past few years, so he’s had to reacquaint himself with the scene since returning.
“I have people putting me on every day,” he says. “Double D's and seeing LadyLove, which are my two favorite venues right now. That's kind of where I'm going to check things out, but I'm still exploring the neighborhood.”
In addition to immersing himself in the DJ scene, Blue has spent his time back home assessing his long-term creative goals. There’s still much for him to figure out, but one thing is certain:
“I just know that I wanna be a part of the community as much as possible,” he says. “I just want to see where I fit in and how I can help elevate the scene.”
