Just Blaze

Just Blaze Addresses Kanye West Calling Him His Archenemy: ‘There’s A Friendship There’

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Earlier this year, Kanye West‘s three-part docu-series, Jeen-Yuhs, premiered on Netflix. The docu-series spans over 20 years of his career, including his time collaborating with producer Just Blaze at Roc-A-Fella records. At one point in the documentary, Ye calls Blaze his best friend and his archenemy.

On an episode of Uproxx’s The People’s Party With Talib Kweli podcast, Blaze spoke with the host, revealing that he understands where the comments came from.

“I can see why he would look at it as the ‘archnemesis’ thing,” Blaze said to Kweli. “I guess it kinda was that, ’cause a lot of archnemeses…a lot of times they’re actually guys that are friends. Most of the classic super-villain/superhero stories, there’s a friendship there.”

Blaze continued, saying, “Some people like to spin the narrative, ‘Oh, they were super competitive, they were out there duking it out,’ I never, I honestly never looked at it like that. Like, he would call me to ask me, ‘Yo, how did you get your horns to sound like this on this record, I’m trying to figure that out,’ right?”

Elsewhere in the episode, Blaze revealed that he and West haven’t spoken in a while, not out of bad blood, but rather due to going separate paths. Though in 2021, West accused Blaze of copying his production style, though Blaze remained peaceful on the matter.

Check out the full episode above.

Just Blaze Breaks Down the Making of ‘The Blueprint’: Touring with Jay-Z Was “Humbling”

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The producer behind the iconic song “Girls, Girls, Girls,” Just Blaze shares what it was like to bring the song to life, while taking a deep dive into the making of Jay-Z’s hit album The Blueprint.

Earlier this week, legendary producer, DJ, architect of early 2000’s hip hop and pioneer of sampling Just Blaze talked with lyricist and emcee Talib Kweli on the People’s Party podcast to discuss his influences, impact and journey with music. 

The iconic turn tablelist also dished the massive influence the legendary producer, Pete Rock has on his production. Blaze and Kweli also discuss the close mutual friends they share in the business and talk about J Period’s spiritual decision to ditch sampling around the time of his contribution to the Black Star album and how that led to Blaze getting the bulk of his record collection.

Find out Blaze’s take on why Kanye’s stated that he was his arch nemesis while they both were working as the chief producers at Roc-A-Fella  and so much more!

Share your thoughts and comments with us on social media.

The post Just Blaze Breaks Down the Making of ‘The Blueprint’: Touring with Jay-Z Was “Humbling” appeared first on The Source.

10 Reasons Why Kanye West’s ‘Graduation’ Remains Memorable

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    The Release Day Battle with 50 Cent

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    The Emergence of Electronic Arena Rap

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    It Reflected Kanye’s Perfectionism and Tenacity

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    That T-Pain Feature

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    Takashi Murakami’s Involvement

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    It Yielded the Glow in the Dark Tour

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    Its Rock Influences

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    Inspired Artists like Drake, Childish Gambino, and Doja Cat

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    It Still Has Some of His Best Egotistical Anthems

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    “Big Brother” Foreshadows ‘Watch the Throne’

The Game Challenges Eminem To A Rap Battle In A Clip From Uproxx’s ‘Fresh Pair’

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At the end of last year, it was announced that sneaker-customizer-to-the-stars Katty Customs would be teaming up with Grammy-nominated and multi-Platinum producer Just Blaze for Fresh Pair, a new show on Uproxx. The upcoming series — set to launch in early summer ’22 — features Katty and Just teaming up to make custom sneakers for some of the biggest names in entertainment. After the hard work of crafting the shoe is done, the hosts sit down with each guest to discuss their careers and how those careers inspired these unique, 1-of-1 kicks.

In a clip from the show — released today, along with a show trailer — The Game chops it up with Katty and Just Blaze. It’s here that he makes a stern challenge to Eminem, clarifying previous mentions of an Em-focused diss track by his manager, Wack 100 — which stemmed from The Game’s appearance on Drink Champs last month. In that interview, The Game claimed that he could not only beat Eminem in a Verzuz but that he is also a better rapper overall. His comments received plenty of criticism, and during his time on Fresh Pair, The Game responded to the criticism with tremendous nuance.

“I’ve always told myself that ‘you are the best rapper!’” The Game said after pointing out how the late Kobe Bryant was often compared to Michael Jordan. “Everything that we do, if you’re doing it on this level that we’re doing it at, is some type of competition. Usain Bolt ain’t running around the track by himself in the Olympics. It’s n****s trying to beat him and he’s trying to beat somebody.”

The Game added that his comments towards Eminem were to “challenge him” and “challenge hip-hop.” He makes it very clear that this isn’t about violence, it’s only about rap. Just Blaze then asked The Game why he’s taking aim at Eminem specifically, and The Game revealed that it’s tied to his longtime beef with 50 Cent.

“50 can’t rap,” The Game said. “So I gotta go a level up and challenge the better rapper, that’s why. And not to take nothing away from what 50’s doing, he can see it and tweet it, but he knows I’m gonna respond. Or he can go rap about it, but he knows he’s gonna lose that battle.” He later added, speaking of 50: “When it comes to rap, he can’t out-rap me. Your buddy can rap though, and nobody takes shots at Eminem off this preconceived notion that he’s better than everybody. Well, I want action and I want it today.”

The clip is paired with a trailer for Fresh Pair that reveals five of the eight season 1 guests — Jadakiss, Jim Jones, El-P, Styles P, and The Game. The show is set to air on Uproxx and Youtube.com/UproxxVideo.

Meet Some Members of the XXL Awards Board on XXL Magazine Cover

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Illustrious members of the music industry including executives, A&Rs, marketing experts, managers, producers, DJs, publicists and some select veteran artists have been picked for the XXL Awards Board and they will be determining the awards winners. Continue reading…

Just Blaze Responds To Ye’s Claims That He Copied Ye’s Whole Style

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Ye — aka Kanye West — caused quite a stir with his recent appearance on NORE’s podcast Drink Champs. In addition to throwing his former GOOD Music signees Big Sean and John Legend under the bus and realigning himself with Donald Trump, he also made other wild claims including accusing fellow former Roc-A-Fella Records in-house producer Just Blaze of copying his production style. While it’s true that both producers made use of pitch-shifted soul samples, there is ample evidence that their techniques were developed concurrently — that didn’t stop Kanye from doing his best to burn that particular bridge.

Now, Just Blaze himself has replied to Kanye’s claims, posting a statement on Instagram and Twitter calling the incident “unfortunate” and refuting the accusations of copying.

Well that was unfortunate. I’m only addressing this publicly because it was stated publicly. I’m not here for the mudslinging, I’m just a bit confused and disappointed.

None of what was said tonight regarding me fits with any of our history or our previous interactions – particularly in light of very recent attempts to work together again. Through recent years he has reached out to collaborate on various projects, including a much rumored collaborative project that he was looking for me to handle a good amount of. It unfortunately never saw the light of day due to reasons unrelated to me. Most recently, a couple of months back I woke up to a literal red alert from his people that he was looking for me for his last album in the 11th hour. We tried to pull something off but it was way too last minute.

Regarding that one comment: respectfully, I’m happy for him and the fact that he has succeeded in the ways he wanted to, but not everyone wants to be where he is. Everyone’s definition of personal success is a bit different. I’m quite happy where I am creatively, with my family, and my life in general. We were a part of history together and I wish him well and continued success.

Just signs off by warning, “Media: please do not clickbait this,” but like… we all have jobs to do, man. Anyway, the fallout from Kanye’s implosion on Drink Champs continues to land on the music landscape and I’m sure that there will be further responses from those folks the mercurial producer mentioned because there were a lot and he wasn’t really kind to most of them.

50 of the Greatest Producer Tags in Hip-Hop

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Pi’erre Bourne, Tay Keith, Southside and more have some of the coolest producer tags in hip-hop. Continue reading…