Justin Gregory Smith (born January 8, 1978), known professionally as Just Blaze, is an American hip hop

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and DJ. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Blaze attended

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

for three years before dropping out to pursue his musical career. His stage name was inspired by the character

Blaze Fielding Blaze Fielding (ブレイズ・フィールディング), better known as just Blaze, is a player character in Sega's '' Streets of Rage'' (''Bare Knuckle'') series of beat 'em up games. Introduced in the original '' Streets of Rage'' in 1991, ...

from the '' Streets of Rage'' video game series. Blaze gained recognition as a producer for

Roc-A-Fella Records Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. History 1994–2000: Formation ...

in the early 2000s, pioneering the " chipmunk soul" sampling style that was prominent in the early to mid-2000s hip-hop scene. He appears in the video for the third single from Eminem's 2010 album ''

Recovery Recovery or Recover may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books * ''Recovery'' (novel), a Star Wars e-book * Recovery Version, a translation of the Bible with footnotes published by Living Stream Ministry Film and television * ''Recovery'' (fil ...

'' entitled "

No Love "No Love" is a song by American rapper Eminem, featuring fellow American rapper Lil Wayne, from Eminem's seventh studio album '' Recovery'' (2010). It was released as the third official single from the album. It impacted radio on October 5 ...

", which he produced. Blaze is also the CEO of Fort Knocks Entertainment. He has also composed soundtracks for video games, and was a character in ''

NBA Street Vol. 2 ''NBA Street Vol. 2'' is a basketball video game, published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label and developed by NuFX and EA Canada. It is the sequel to the original ''NBA Street'' and the second game in the ''NBA Street (series), NBA ...

'' . His hometown of Paterson honored him in July 2018 with a key to the city in recognition of his "outstanding cultural contribution" to the city.Kuperinsky Amy
"Oh boy: Just Blaze gets key to Paterson, recognition for 'outstanding cultural contribution'"
NJ Advance Media for

NJ.com NJ.com is a digital news content provider and website in New Jersey owned by Advance Publications. According to a report in ''The New York Times'' in 2012, it was the largest provider of digital news in the state at the time. In 2018, comScore r ...

, August 1, 2018. Accessed August 8, 2019. "The music producer Just Blaze has been the pride of Paterson for a while, but now he has the key to the city.... Earlier this month, Smith collected his latest accolade when Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh presented him with a key to the city 'for outstanding cultural contribution' and the city council passed a resolution recognizing his achievements."

Production discography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Just Blaze Living people American hip hop record producers African-American record producers African-American musicians Musicians from Paterson, New Jersey 1978 births East Coast hip hop musicians 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people