JUST BLAZE
He’s responsible for putting names like Camron and Erick Sermon back into heavy radio rotation, and breaking ground with artists like Joe Budden and The Diplomats. Only a few producers can serve as such a hot commodity in hip-hop like Just Blaze, undeniably one of the illest producers in the game. His client list alone gives him enough clout to put Blaze on his own pedestal. OZONE caught up with Just Blaze on the set of Joe Budden’s "Pump It Up" video shoot to find out how all the elements came together to come up with some of the hottest tracks that are still, to this day, bumping in clubs and rides across the country.
"You Don’t Know What You Do," – Jay-Z
I’d always wanted to do that beat, but I’d lost my record. Then my man who used to hang around the studio with us had come through and played the record. I told him I’d been trying to find it everywhere, and he gave me the record. It was crazy, ‘cause it took Jay like six months to do the record. Every time he’d come in the studio, I’d be like, "Yo! Don’t forget about ‘You Don’t Know’," and he’d be like "I don’t know what?" Anyway, he did like a verse and a half. Every time he listened to it, he’d just keep adding more and more, and it just became a masterpiece on its own because the beat is so energetic. I didn’t expect the record to turn out as hot as it did, as far as clubs are concerned, ‘cause it was such a slow record. It was only 78 beats per minute, but your average club record is at least 94 bpm. For such a slow beat to make it to the clubs, I felt like it was a personal achievement. On top of that, when we did the remix with M.O.P, that was more like the Director’s Cut, because I never really got to finish the beat the first time because we got rushed to the mixing and mastering. There’s even an unintentional little skip in the record, because we never got to finish it. Thank God the public still loved it, but every time I heard it I was thinking of all the things I needed to add, like the intro that’s on the M.O.P. version. I lost that record so many times, I couldn’t do the original intro like I wanted to. We didn’t have time to do all the drum fills. When Jay said he was doing a remix with M.O.P., I just walked into the studio one day and he said he had something for me to listen to. It was almost like a second chance at life for the record. I finally got to do what I’d been wanting to do. The same way that the original started riots in the club, the remix is just straight-up warfare, because M.O.P. brings the energy. They just take it over the top, cause that’s what they’re all about, energy.
"React" - Erick Sermon
Yo! A lot of people have no idea that beat is almost four years old. Now, everybody is messing around with the Arabic sound, but when I did the beat nobody understood what I was trying to do. I played it for Jay, just to get his opinion, because I wasn’t sure. I didn’t think he would rhyme to it, but I just respect his opinion. He told me I should give it to either Missy or Redman. I gave it to Redman’s A&R and he loved it but said he didn’t know what to do with the lyrics. He said he didn’t get it. Nobody saw my vision. So, the beat was sitting in my man’s crib for a couple years. Erick called Redman, from my understanding, and told him he didn’t have a single. Redman gave him some of my old beats, and the first one on the CD was "React." They were sitting there like, "Yo, what do we do with the hook?" Red was like, "Whatever she said," and Erick was like, "That’s it, that’s what she said, then I’m dat." So that’s how they came up as the hook. It started out as a joke but it ended up working, from what they told me. I didn’t even know they had done the song, because I was in L.A. I had left my 2way in the hotel room, and when I came back there was like twenty messages from Erick Sermon like, "Yo! That beat you did was crazy." Everybody, like Angie Martinez, was hittin’ me up saying it was one of my best records, and I was so confused cause I hadn’t done a beat for Erick Sermon. I came to find out they had done the song and took it to radio, and got such a big response they just rolled with it. I think that same day they called my manager and told him they’d pay whatever for the song, and that’s basically just how it happened. It was really just a matter of time. They say every great artist has at least one moment where they’re at their prime, and I think that was mine. I had a whole CD of Arabic beats, and I wish I could find them now, ‘cause I’d probably sell all of them shits. But it is what it is.
"Welcome to New York City" – Camron f/ Jay-Z
Well, Camron’s album was done and he didn’t have a song with Jay on it yet. I was actually making that beat for Freeway, because his voice is so energetic. Cam came in the room and was like, "Jay said he’ll do the song, but we need the beat right now." I finished the beat in about twenty minutes. You know that song where Jay says in the beginning, "Welcome to New York City," that Kanye West produced? They had just recorded that a few days before, so that was stuck in my head. The beat was already on some rock-n-roll shit, so I just went in the booth and sang and it came out sounding good. It sounded like a rap record. That’s me singing the hook. Everybody thought it was a sample, because the beat sounds like a sample. But it’s all original, all Blaze. It wasn’t even inspired, I played everything on that record from the guitars to the keyboard.
"Oh Boy" - Camron
Yeah, that was a turning point in my career. That shit took the game to another level, especially with "Just Blaze" at the beginning. There’s been a couple turning points in my career. The first was when I actually started selling beats. The next step is when I got down with rhyming, and the next step was when Jay actually accepted me, cause for a long time, he wasn’t even trying to hear none of my beats. So when he let me do like a third of the "Dynasty" album, and then a third of the "Blueprint," that was the next step that pushed my career. "Oh Boy" was the one that really took it over the top. In reality, that beat came from me just messing around. It’s such a slow record, I didn’t think it could be done. I was making an uptempo beat based around the intro, but I played it for Bleek and he said it was weak, so I got mad. We can go back and forth about beats all day, cause he likes beats that I don’t like, and vice versa. I had recently purchased the SP1200. Everyone knows that’s one of the greatest beat machines of all time but I had never bought one before. I was trying to learn how to use it, so I took all the hip-hop samples from my MPC and just started playing around with it. It was a real slow beat, and I was actually trying to learn how to chop on the SP. So I used the "oh" on one, the "boy" on another, and I was like, "Yo! This kinda got a ring to it!" I didn’t really think much of it until my man, the Roc-A-Fella engineer, heard it. He didn’t say anything, and walked out of the room, but the next day he came in like, "Yo. I was hearing that shit in my sleep all night." Something about the beat, it’s just crazy catchy. So, I made a CD with that beat, and nobody at the Roc really messed with it for a minute until Cam happened to be in the studio. I didn’t even know what they were working on in the studio but they did the song and I caught them as they were walking out. Cam had this weird smile on his face. I walked into the studio lounge and there’s a boombox and press play, I hear Cam rhyming on this beat that sounds familiar. It was so crazy, I just couldn’t deny that record. I think DJ Enuff got it that same day, he must have played it like nine times in a row. What can I say? I’m proud that I did it and flattered that people loved it.
Good lookin' peace
