Producer Just Blaze is preparing to take his successes and move them to another level of the industry – his own recording label.
He crafted beats for the greats of our time like Jay-Z, Usher, Memphis Bleek, Shaggy, Nelly Fabolous, Snoop Dogg, the Roc-A-Fella crew, Faith Evans and others, but now the New Jersey-born producer seeks talent.
Just don’t send him a demo with the standard thug fare.
“I’m looking for some of the hottest rappers that aren’t saying the same thing everybody else is saying. If I hear one more ‘crack rock gets sold, gun gets bussed,’ [rap] I am going to lose my mind,” he told BET.com from his studio in Manhattan. “It’s just so many things to talk about.”
“Listen to the mixtapes. Everybody is saying the same thing. ‘The fifth will do this, the fourth will do that. I slang crack rock and I’m mean and I’m a rapper. Let’s do something else.”
Slowly, the acclaimed beat architect is putting together his record label.
“I don’t even have an infrastructure for the label,” Just Blaze said. “I’m not trying to take it out of my immediate circle now.” Contrary to previous reports, Blaze said that talk of he and Memphis Bleek starting a label were exaggerated even though the pair expect to work together.
The acclaimed producer refused to answer questions about the rumors of him signing rappers Saigon and Stimuli, both of which are making waves in New York. He did reveal that he has “set up shop” in Bassline Studios, the former recording station for Roc-A-Fella Records.
Furthermore, he’s begun to work closely with Brooklyn’s DJ Sickamore, who he says is completely on the pulse of what’s hot in the hood.
“Him working with me was just out of a conversation. He kept bringing me hot material,” Blaze said.
Most recently, Just Blaze has produced exclusive songs on Jay-Z’s new mixtape “S.Carter The Remix.”