ジャスト・ブレイズさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ジャスト・ブレイズInstagram)「So here’s how I discovered @justblaze: In September of 2000 I was writing Direct Effect at MTV—their live, daily hip hop answer to TRL. One afternoon MTV’s head of talent relations, Fred Jordan (RIP), pops into my office and asks if I want to hear the new Jay-Z album. Duh. So I follow him up to his office and who is sitting there alone? Yup, Jay-Z. Unfortunately, Jay only has a DAT, so Fred had to search the building to find a DAT player. Which left my extremely awkward 20 year old self extremely alone with the biggest rapper in the world. Jay broke the ice with, “So you’re the hip-hop guy? *Hov laugh*” and then proceeds to grill me on my top Kane and Rakim verses. We agreed on “Raw” but agreed to disagree on Rakim (I was team “Juice”, he “My Melody”). Finally Fred returned, + Jay pops in the tape and plays us the “Dynasty Intro” and…WHAT??! Jay chuckled, “You know, what’s the point of an intro if doesn’t let ‘em know you’re the best to ever do it? *Hov Laugh*.” Of course we made him play it 3x, and I got to inquire who produced it, ‘cause, godly as the verses were, the beat was also unlike anything I had ever heard before. He said, “Just Blaze.” “Dude that did the Sigel/Bleek song? Isn’t he more of a keyboard guy?” I asked, knowing nothing of Just’s pedigree beyond “Who Want What.” Jay just smiled, “Oh nah, you gotta hear what he gave me for this album…” And then he pressed play. What followed was the rough draft of Roc-A-Fella’s signature sound, and Just’s contribution—the most aggressive, noisy and belligerent of the bunch—were the ones that spoke to my soul. He took everything I loved about the sample-based hip hop production of the 90s, and combined it with the heavy bass and ear splitting percussion of Triton-era, and made something both completely modern and completely classic. Over the next 20+yrs he would continue to blow my mind again and again, amassing a catalog uniquely evenly divided between quintessential b-sides and ubiquitous pop hits. So its a great joy to host Just for this week’s ep and talk his passion, his path, and his next chapter as a creative leader at the Brass Lion video game studio, + more. On @bloombergtv + YT. Thx, @acura」3月14日 6時08分