Few producers have shaped the sound of hip-hop the way Just Blaze has. From Roc-A-Fella anthems to global club stages, he’s lived through the shifts in both production and DJ culture firsthand. In a recent sit-down with DJ City, he spoke candidly about the rise of superstar DJs, the art of rocking a set, and why staying hands-on in the studio still matters.
Blaze’s origin story with turntables goes all the way back to his cousin’s rack system in the ’80s, where he first witnessed the magic of two copies of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” being blended.
“I must have been five, six years old. But it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.”
That moment set him on a path that would eventually merge beatmaking, DJing, and production at the highest levels.
Today, DJ culture looks very different from when he was coming up. What was once the job of the “guy in the corner that played records” has exploded into Vegas billboards and international residencies. Blaze sees the divide clearly:
“There is a commodity amongst DJs who love DJing for the music aspect of it, who came into it as fans. And you can kind of tell who’s in it for what reason.”
For him, great DJs aren’t defined by genre tags or hype trends but by execution.
“I don’t care what genre you play. I don’t care—as long as it sounds good. I prefer a little bit of everything.”
That perspective reflects his own sets, where hip-hop classics, electronic textures, and forgotten gems can collide seamlessly.
Blaze also touched on ghost production, a reality in today’s high-demand DJ world. Touring schedules often leave little room for studio time, leading many marquee names to outsource.
“That’s one thing I’ve never done… everything that I’ve produced, I actually have produced.”
While he doesn’t knock younger DJs for getting help, his pride in staying hands-on underscores his reputation as both a technician and craftsman.
But the heart of his philosophy comes back to history and storytelling. Technology may simplify the mechanics, but Blaze insists that the real art is in the journey:
“You still gotta learn to count bars. You still gotta learn to count beats. You still gotta learn how to take a crowd on a journey… That’s what differentiates a lot of us.”
He gave an example: anyone can pull songs from a Hot 97 playlist and let software do the beat-matching. But the DJs who stand out are the ones who weave in originals, remixes, forgotten breaks, and unexpected blends that make people say:
“Yo, I ain’t heard that record in 10 years, but he made it work perfectly.”
In a culture where the spectacle often overshadows the craft, Just Blaze reminds us of the essentials: knowing your history, respecting the music, and always keeping the crowd moving.
“Whatever it is that you’re doing, there’s something else that came before that… Things like that are what differentiate DJs.”
That’s the gospel according to Blaze—less about the flash, more about the foundation.