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 Paterson ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.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, she ...

from the ''

Streets of Rage ''Streets of Rage'' is a series of side-scrolling beat 'em up video games, centering on the efforts of several ex-police vigilantes trying to rid a fictional, large American city from a crime syndicate that has corrupted its local government. ...

'' 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'' entitled " No Love", which he produced. Blaze is also the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Fort Knocks Entertainment Fort Knocks Entertainment is an American East Coast hip hop, pop and R&B record label and full-scale production house founded in 2004 by record producer Just Blaze. Current roster Artists Affiliated labels * Atlantic Records * Roc-A-Fella ...

. 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. It w ...

'' . 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, 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