Just Blaze & Young Guru talk Jay-Z, Dame Dash,The Blueprint, Higher, Ghostface, Busta Rhymes + More

Published on Jun 4, 2013
http://www.hardknock.tv Just Blaze and Young Guru sit down for an exclusive conversation on Hard Knock TV. The interview starts of with Young Guru asking Just Blaze about his new song Higher and about making transition from Hip Hop into EDM. Just Blaze says that he has always made electronic beats but that he didn’t always have a place to release those beats which were often ahead of their times. Now that the genre lines are so blurred it is seen as more acceptable to listen to everything. As the conversation continues Just Blaze says that now he is “comfortable doing whatever it is I want…I’m comfortable playing what I want, I’m comfortable wearing what I want and just being me as an individual…not that I wasn’t comfortable with who I am but I was definitely doing a keeping up with the Jones kind of thing…I had to have a fresher jersey than Dame but meanwhile Dame was getting them for free from Mitchell & Ness cause he is Dame Dash and I had to pay $500 for it and I had to this every day for years straight…”

Young Guru tells Just Blaze that one of the biggest things that he had learned from him was to construct the record in his head before he sampled the parts. Guru talks about the making of Jay-Z’s Song Cry and that when he first heard the sample Just Blaze was going to use he thought it sounded off but that after Jay-Z laid his verse to the raw beat at night, they came back in the morning and it sounded like a masterpiece after Just Blaze was done building the track. That day Jay called 2-3 producers and told them that they were not on Just Blaze’s level.

Just Blaze continues by telling Guru how Jay’s Girls, Girls, Girls was originally intended for Ghostface and how Busta Rhymes originally heard You don’t Know and he wanted it for himself.

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From Hip Hop Dx:
About twelve years ago, Jay-Z began his Blueprint series with Just Blaze and Young Guru among the trusted few by his side. Recently, Just and Gu sat down to talk about their work while making the disc with Blaze admitting that some of the beats Jay selected weren’t necessarily made with Jigga in mind.

“The only joint that preexisted was ‘Girls, Girls, Girls,’ which I had been holding for Ghostface [Killah]. The protools session was called ‘Ghostface.’ And I remember, when I first started the first version of “U Don’t Know,” Busta [Rhymes] happened to come by and was like, ‘I need this!’ I was like, ‘Let me get back. I’m not sure what I want to do.’ I knew it had the potential to be something explosive.”

The pair also discussed the making of “Song Cry,” and how much the beat changed from when Jay-Z laid his vocals to when the finished track was revealed.

“You finished the first way and I was like, ‘This dude is a genius,'” Young Guru said to Blaze. “I think Jay walked in, he heard the beat and he laid the rhyme that night just immediately. That’s how fast we was doing the Blueprint joints. He laid the rhyme that night. And you worked on the record that night. I have never seen…How many chops was on that?” he asked.

“96,” Blaze responded.

“It was in one form, a basic form for the emcee to say the rhyme,” Young Guru continued. “Then, the long intro and all the different changes came so by the time Jay came back the next day, it completely sounded different. What’s on the album is completely different from what he laid the rhyme to.”

According to Just Blaze, Jay-Z took that moment to call several unnamed producers who he was “cool with” to tell them, “You’re good but Just Blaze is a genius.” Blaze says other producers were mad at him at the time for that. Young Guru added that Blaze’s other beats for Blueprint were made that weekend.